UC-NRLF 


GIFT   OF 
EVGENE  MEYER,J& 


OBSERVATIONS 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


WITH    PARTICULAR    REFERENCE    TO    THE    ATTACK    THEY    CONTAIN 


ON    THE    MEMORY    OF    THE    LATE 


GEN.  HENRY   LEE. 
\\ 


IN      A       SERIES       OF      LETTERS, 
BY  H.  LEE,    OP    VIRGINIA. 


NEW -YORK: 

* 

CHARLES    DE    BEHR, 

NO.    102,    BROADWAY. 


M  DCCC  XXXII. 


Entered  according  to  an  Ar.t  of  Congresi,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
two,  by  Charles  de  Behr,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Court  of  the  United  Statei.  for  the  Southern 
Diitrict  of  New-York. 


NEW- YORK: 

DWIO      .V      TOLKFREK,     PRINTKRS, 
Corner  of  Ve»ey  &  Oreenwich->(reet>. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


IN  preparing  the  following  observations,  I  felt  the  want  of 
many  sources  of  authority  and  information,  which  exist  only  in 
the  United  States. 

It  was,  in  consequence,  my  intention  to  postpone  their  publica 
tion  until  after  my  return.  But  that  having  been  unexpectedly 
deferred,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  submit  to  the  public  without 
further  dela)^,  such  a  defence  of  my  father's  memory,  as  the  few 
materials  within  my  reach,  have  enabled  me  to  compose.  The 
truths  it  contains  will  speak  for  themselves,  and  any  errors  which 
may  be  discovered,  I  shall  be  most  willing  to  acknowledge  and 
retract. 

H.  LEE. 

PARIS,  Dec.  2,  1831. 


OBSERVATIONS,  <fcc. 


LETTER  I. 

I  HAVE  read,  my  dear  sir,  with  great  regret,  in  Jefferson's 
"  Writings"  (v.  3  p.  330.)  the  following  letter  from  that  gentle 
man  to  General  Washington ;  which  contains,  as  I  conceive,  a 
gross  and  unprovoked  slander  on  the  character  of  my  father,  and 
which,  as  I  design  to  make  it  the  subject  of  examination,  is 
transcribed  here  without  alteration  or  curtailment. 

TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 

Monticello,  June  19th,  1796. 

"  In  Bache's  Aurora  of  the  9th  inst.  which  came  here  by  the 
last  post,  a  paper  appears  which  having  been  confided  as  I  pre 
sume,  to  but  few  hands,  makes  it  truly  wonderful  how  it  should 
have  got  there.  I  cannot  be  satisfied  as  to  my  own  part,  till  I 
relieve  my  mind  by  declaring,  and  I  attest  every  thing  sacred 
and  honourable  to  the  declaration,  that  it  has  got  there  neither 
through  me  nor  the  paper  confided  to  me.  This  has  never  been 
from  under  my  own  lock  and  key,  or  out  of  my  own  hands,  no 
mortal  ever  knew  from  me  that  these  questions  had  been  pro 
posed.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  except  one  person,  who  possesses  all 
my  confidence,  as  he  has  possessed  yours.  I  do  not  remember 
indeed  that  I  communicated  it  even  to  him.  But  as  I  was  in 
the  habit  of  unlimited  trust  and  counsel  with  him,  it  is  possible 
I  may  have  read  it  to  him,  no  more :  for  the  quire  of  which  it 
makes  a  part  was  never  in  any  hand  but  my  own,  nor  was  a 
word  ever  copied  or  taken  down  from  it  by  any  body.  I  take 


on  myself  without  fear,  any  divulgation  on  his  part.     We  both 
know  him  incapable  of  it.     From  myself  then,  or  my  paper, 
this  publication  has  never  been  derived.     I  have  formerly  men 
tioned  to  you ;   that  from  a  very  early  period  of  my  -life,  I  had 
laid  it  down  as  a  rule  of  conduct,  never  to  write  a  word  for  the 
public  papers.     From  this  I  have  never  departed  in  a  single  in 
stance  ;  and  on  a  late  occasion,  when  all  the  world  seemed 
to  be  writing,  besides  a  rigid  adherence  to  my  own  rule,  I  can 
say  with  truth  that  not  a  line  for  the  press  was  ever  communi 
cated  to  me  by  another,  except  a  single  petition  referred  for  my 
correction ;  which  I  did  not  correct,  however,  though  the  con 
trary,  as  I  have  heard,  was  said  in  a  public  place,  by  one  person 
through  error,  through  malice  by  another.     I  learn  that  this  last 
has  thought  it  worth  his  while  to  try  to  sow  tares  between  you 
and  me,  by  representing  me  as  still  engaged  in  the  bustle  of 
politics,  and  in  turbulence  and  intrigue  against  the  government. 
I  never  believed  for  a  moment  that  this  could  make  any  impres 
sion  on  you,  or  that  your  knowledge  of  me  would  not  overweigh 
the  slander  of  an  intriguer,  dirtily  employed  in  sifting  the  con 
versations  of  my  table,  where  alone  he  could  hear  of  me ;  and 
seeking  to  atone  for  sins  against  you  by  sins  against  another 
who  had  never  done  him  any  other  injury  than  that  of  declining 
his  confidences.      Political  conversations   I   really  dislike,  and 
therefore  avoid  where  I  can  without  affectation.      But  when 
urged  by  others  I  have  never  conceived  that  my  having  been 
in  public  life  requires  me  to  belie  my  sentiments,  or  even  to  con 
ceal  them.     When  I  am  led  by  conversation  to  express  them,  I 
do  it  with  the  same  independence  here  which  I  have  practised 
everywhere,  and  which  is  inseparable  from  my  nature.     But 
enough  of  this  miserable  tergiversator,  who  ought  indeed  either 
to  have  been  of  more  truth,  or  less  trusted  by  his  country.* 

While  on  the  subject  of  papers,  permit  me  to  ask  one  from 
you.  You  remember  the  difference  of  opinion  between  Hamilton 
and  Knox  on  the  one  part,  and  myself  on  the  other,  on  the  subject 
of  firing  on  the  little  Sarah,  and  that  we  had  exchanged  opinions 
and  reasons  in  writing.  On  your  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  I 
delivered  you  a  copy  of  my  reasons,  in  the  presence  of  Col. 
Hamilton.  On  our  withdrawing  he  told  me  he  had  been  so 
much  engaged  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  prepare  a  copy  of 
his  and  Gen.  Knox's  for  you,  and  that  if  I  would  send  you  the 
one  he  had  given  me,  he  would  replace  it  in  a  few  days.  I  im- 

*  Note  by  the  Editor.  "(Here  in  the  margin  of  the  copy,  is  written, 
apparently  at  a  later  date,-1  Gen.  H.  Leo.'  ") 


mediately  sent  it  to  you  wishing  you  should  see  both  sides  of 
the  subject  together — I  often  after  applied  to  both  the  gentlemen, 
but  could  never  obtain  another  copy — I  have  often  thought  of 
asking  this  one,  or  a  copy  of  it,  back  from  you,  but  have  not 
before  written  on  subjects  of  this  kind  to  you.  Though  I  do 
not  know  that  it  will  ever  be  of  the  least  importance  to  me,  yet 
one  loves  to  possess  arms,  though  they  hope  never  to  have  occa 
sion  for  them.  They  possess  my  paper  in  my  own  hand 
writing.  It  is  just  I  should  possess  theirs.  The  only  thing 
amiss  is  that  they  should  have  left  me  to  seek  a  return  of  the 

Tr,  or  a  copy  of  it  from  you. 
put  away  this  disgusting  dish  of  old  fragments,  and  talk  to 
you  of  my  peas  and  clover.  As  to  the  latter  article,  I  have 
great  encouragement  from  the  friendly  nature  of  our  soil.  I 
think  I  have  had,  both  the  last  and  present  year,  as  good  clover 
from  common  grounds,  which  had  brought  several  crops  of 
wheat  and  corn  without  ever  having  been  manured,  as  I  ever 
saw  on  the  lots  around  Philadelphia.  I  verily  believe  that  a 
field  of  thirty-four  acres,  sowed  on  wheat,  April  was  twelvemonth, 
has  given  me  a  ton  to  the  acre  at  its  first  cutting  this  spring. 
The  stalks  extended,  measured  three  and  a  half  feet  long,  very 
commonly— another  field,  a  year  older,  and  which  yielded  as 
well  the  last  year,  has  sensibly  fallen  off  this  year.  My  ex 
hausted  fields  bring  a  clover  not  high  enough  for  hay,  but  I 
hope  to  make  seed  from  it.  Such  as  these,  however,  I  shall 
hereafter  put  into  peas  in  the  broadcast,  proposing  that  one  of 
my  sowings  of  wheat  shall  be  after  two  years  of  clover,  and  the 
other  after  two  years  of  peas.  I  am  trying  the  white  boiling 
pea  of  Europe  (the  Albany  pea)  this  year,  till  I  can  get  the  hog 
pea  of  England,  which  is  the  most  productive  pea  of  all.  But 
the  true  winter  vetch  is  what  we  want  extremely.  I  have  tried 
this  year  the  Caroline  drill.  It  is  absolutely  perfect.  Nothing 
can  be  more  simple,  nor  perform  its  office  more  perfectly  for  a 
single  row.  I  shall  try  to  make  one  to  sow  four  rows  at  a  time 
of  wheat  or  peas,  at  twelve  inches  distance.  I  have  one  of  the 
Scotch  threshing  machines  nearly  finished.  It  is  copied  exactly 
from  a  model  Mr.  Pinckney  sent  me,  only  that  I  have  put  the 
whole  works  (except  the  horse  wheel)  into  a  single  frame,  movea- 
ble  from  one  field  to  another  on  the  two  axles  of  a  wagon.  It 
will  be  ready  in  time  for  the  harvest  which  is  coming  on,  which 
will  give  it  a  full  trial.  Our  wheat  and  rye  are  generally  fine 
and  the  prices  talked  of  bid  fair  to  indemnify  us  for  the  poor 
crops  of  the  two  last  years. 


8 

I  take  the  liberty  of  putting  under  your  cover  a  letter  to  the 
son  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette,  not  exactly  knowing  where 
to  direct  to  him. 

With  very  affectionate  compliments  to  Mrs.  Washington,  I 
have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  and  sincere  esteem  and  respect, 
dear  sir,  your  most  obedient  and  most  humble  servant, 

TH.  JEFFERSON." 

The  respect  which  in  common  with  a  great  majority  of  my 
countrymen,  I  was  induced  to  entertain  for  the  character  of  Mr. 
Jefferson,  is  now  a  double  source  of  regret  to  me,  as  it  enhances 
the  duty  of  defending  my  father's  memory  and  aggravates  the 
pain  of  performing  it.  To  add  to  this  chagrin  comes  the  reflec 
tion,  that  I  may  occasion  to  the  feelings  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  rela 
tives,  a  violence  not  unlike  that  under  which  my  own  are  suffering 
— a  violence  to  which  I  am  forced  at  the  sacrifice  of  long-cherish 
ed  veneration,  and  which  they  can  forgive  only  at  the  expense 
of  a  sacred  affection.  A  shock  of  surprise  has  increased  this 
accumulated  mortification.  That  General  Lee  was  politically 
opposed  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  was  well  aware ;  but  that  personal 
rancour  existed  on  either  side,  I  had  not  the  least  suspicion. 
The  zeal  of  the  former  you  will  attest,  was  too  polished  and 
well-tempered,  to  carry  on  its  edge  the  taint  of  abuse  or  the 
poison  of  slander.  Careless  of  political  preferment  himself,  he 
could  well  endure  the  elevation  of  others.  And  as  in  the  party 
warfare  that  divided  the  nation  Mr.  Jefferson  was  a  more  suc 
cessful  combatant,  I  supposed  he  had  been  at  least  as  tolerant  an 
adversary. 

Other  considerations  strengthened  this  impression.  They 
had  both  been  labourers  in  a  great  and  successful  national  strug 
gle.  They  were  the  common  friends  of  many  eminent  citizens 
— such  as  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Monroe.  In  a  controversy 
most  painful  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  feelings,  he  had  been  indebted  to 
the  delicacy,  forbearance,  and  liberality  of  Gen.  Lee.*  How 
then  could  I  be  prepared  for  this  surviving  virulence,  this  testa 
mentary  hatred  on  his  part  ? 

Before  I  examine  its  intrinsic  value,  it  will  be  well  to  sketch 
its  external  history — as  the  account  of  a  man's  life  is  often  pre 
faced  by  a  description  of  his  person. 

It  cannot  fail  to  be  observed  that  while  expressing  this  violent 
abuse  of  Gen.  Lee,  in  terms  so  flagrantly  unsuitable  to  the 
dignity  of  his  correspondent,  he  took  care  to  suppress  the  men 
tion  of  his  name ;  thus  attempting  an  injury,  and  withholding 

*  For  the  truth  of  this  assertion  I  appeal  confidently  to  Mr.  Madison. 


at  the  same  time  all  means  of  its  redress.  It  was  hardly  possi 
ble  that  Gen.  Washington  should  repeat  such  vague  and  scurri 
lous  language — and  as  little  so,  if  he  did,  that  Gen.  Lee  should 
take  to  himself  its  application.  "  At  a  later  date,"  we  are  told, 
in  an  hour  dedicated  to  the  joys  of  secret  malevolence,  Mr. 
Jefferson  fixed  this  floating  defamation  on  Gen.  Lee  ;  and  at  a 
date  still  later,  when  death  had  struck  with  his  tremendous  dart 
the  subject  of  this  slander,  and  overwhelmed  with  pious  grief  his 
descendants,  bequeathed  it  to  posterity,  as  a  lasting  outrage  to 
their  affection,  and  a  public  stigma  on  his  name.* 

Thus  the  resentment  of  this  philosopher  and  statesman,  was 
appeased,  neither  by  the  fellowship  of  patriotism,  the  remem 
brance  of  kindness,  the  lapse  of  time,  nor  the  solemnity  of  death. 
Exhibited  to  the  world  on  the  summit  of  his  lofty  fame,  it  is 
beheld  in  three  stages  of  progression,  and  in  as  many  shades  of 
intensity.  It  first  appears  a  torrent  of  impetuous  passion.  It 
next  darkens  into  a  stream  of  solitary  and  determined  malice. 
And  thence  descending  it  stop?>,  cold  with  hatred,  and  hardened 
by  inveteracy,  on  the  modest  honours,  and  the  silent  sorrows  that 
dwell  around  a  patriot  soldier's  grave. 

As  the  terms  of  the  offensive  passage  in  question,  notwith 
standing  the  greatness  of  their  authority,  are  as  vague  as  they 
are  indelicate  ;  present  to  the  mind  nothing  but  a  tissue  of  hear 
say  averments  and  malignant  insinuations,  it  will  be  expedient 
to  unfold  their  confusion,  and  to  submit  to  a  fair  and  careful 
scrutiny  whatever  statements  as  to  fact  or  character  can  be  ex 
tracted  from  them. 

One  of  these  is  that  Gen.  Lee,  in  order  to  convey  improper 
information  to  Gen.  Washington,  had  "  dirtily  intrigued,  and  had 
sifted  the  conversations  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  table,  where  alone  he 
could  hear  of  him"  to  obtain  materials  for  his  communications. 
Dismissing  for  a  moment  the  contempt  this  unworthy  accusation 
inspires,  let  me  ask  may  it  not  be  as  justly  retorted  on  Mr. 
Jefferson  as  directed  against  Gen.  Lee?  How  did  he  learn  the 
subject  of  Gen.  Lee's  communications  either  verbal  or  written  to 
Gen.  Washington  ?  Was  it  not  as  necessary  that  for  this  purpose 
he  should  "  dirtily  intrigue  and  sift  table  conversations  "  as  that 
Gen.  Lee  should?  Was  it  not  even  more  so?  Gen.  Washington 
having  been  a  more  important  personage  than  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
Mr.  Jefferson  than  Gen.  Lee,  it  results  from  the  rule  of  proportion, 
that  remarks  made  by  Mr.  Jefferson  respecting  Gen.  Washing- 

*  Gen.  Lee  died  in  March,  1018,  eight  years  before  Mr.  Jefferson  and 
eleven  before  this  slander  appeared. 


10 

ton,  would  more  probably  be  absorbed  into  a  degree  of  circulation, 
than  any  Gen.  Lee  could  make  concerning  Mr.  Jefferson. 
Besides  it  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  hostility  to  Gen. 
Washington  was  too  eager  in  its  spirit  and  (although  he  says 
he  could  only  be  heard  of  at  table  conversations)  too  indiscrimi 
nate  in  its  expression,  to  require  either  industry  or  intrigue  on 
the  part  of  his  friends,  to  discover  it,  and  too  directly  injurious  to 
Gen.  Lee  himself  to  allow  him  to  be  indifferent  to  it. 

In  the  order  of  collocation,  the  first  allegation  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
pon  is,  that  Gen.  Lee  and  another  person  said  at  a  public  place 
that  a  certain  petition  had  been  corrected  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
he  asserts  conclusively,  that  while  the  other  person  had  made  this 
statement  through  error,  Gen.  Lee  made  it  from  malice. 
Taking  for  granted  the  truth  of  this  hearsay  affirmation,  the 
admissions  of  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  show  that  a  less  uncharita 
ble  conclusion  would  have  been  a  more  logical  one.  He  says 
the  petition  was  referred  to  him  for  correction,  but  takes  care  to 
add  "  which  however  I  did  not  correct — "  thus  evincing  a  lively 
apprehension  that  the  fact  of  the  reference,  would  naturally  lead 
to  the  very  conclusion  which  Gen.  Lee  is  reproached  with  having 
drawn.  Apprized  of  the  reference  of  the  petition  to  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  and  satisfied  of  his  secret  hostility  to  Gen.  Washington, 
Gen.  Lee,  without  the  least  malice  or  intent  to  slander,  might 
believe  and  assert,  that  it  had  received  his  correction.  There 
was  less  boldness  in  inferring  the  fact  of  correction  against  Mr. 
Jefferson,  than  in  imputing  the  motive  of  malice  to  Gen.  Lee. 
Indeed  the  probability  is  that  Gen.  Lee  was  only  repeating  the 
assertion  of  some  other  person,  in  whose  truth  and  judgment  he 
confided,  as  his  residence  was  remote  from  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 
And  it  is  equally  probable,  (though  the  remark  does  not  properly 
belong  to  this  stage  of  the  observations)  that  as  the  petition  was 
intended  to  militate  against  the  popularity  and  the  administra 
tion  of  the  President,  Mr.  Jefferson's  not  correcting  it — suffering 
it  to  go  forth  with  all  its  invective  and  mis-statement  to  the  pub 
lic,  was  the  most  unfriendly  position  in  regard  to  Gen.  Washing 
ton,  that,  on  the  occasion  he  could  have  assumed. 

These  considerations  show  that  he  had  no  ground  of  reason 
to  distinguish  odiously  between  the  assertion  of  General  Lee  and 
that  of  the  other  "  person  ;"  and  that  the  utmost  impropriety  of 
which  Gen.  Lee  could  be  charged,  was  with  having  adopted  a 
natural,  but  erroneous  inference — or  rather  with  having  confided 
in  information  which  however  probable,  was  not  in  fact  true. 
Could  this  degree  of  credulity  justify  the  gross  invective  and  in 
jurious  imputations  of  Mr.  Jefferson  ?  Would  it  not  have  been 


11 

more  reasonable  as  well  as  more  decorous  to  observe  that  Gen. 
Lee  was  mistaken,  that  he  had  been  led  into  error  ?  Allowing 
both  that  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  correct  the  petition,  and  that 
Gen.  Lee  had  asserted  that  he  did,  was  he  the  first  or  the  second 
man  who  committed  a  similar  error,  or  who  might  not  be  charged 
with  equal  credulity  ?  Adam  Smith,  whose  authority  is  as  high 
in  the  philosophy  of  morals  as  of  politics,  says,  "  the  man  scarce 
lives  who  is  not  more  credulous  than  he  ought  to  be,  and  who  does 
not  upon  many  occasions,  give  credit  to  tales,  which  not  only 
turn  out  to  be  perfectly  false,  but  which  a  very  moderate  degree 
of  reflection  and  attention  might  have  taught  hrm,  could  not 
very  well  be  true."  This  citation  is  not  required  to  prove  the 
innocence  of  Gen.  Lee,  but  may  help  to  manifest  the  injustice 
of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

I  do  not  mean  to  question  the  fact  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson  next 
complains,  viz.  Gen.  Lee's  having  advised  Gen.  Washington, 
that  while  he  was  confiding  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  apparent  friend 
ship  the  latter  was  engaged  in  disseminating  misrepresentations 
of  his  public  character,  in  instigating  opposition  to  his  measures, 
and  exciting  distrust  of  his  intentions — so  far  from  it,  to  use  the 
slang  of  an  attorney,  I  admit  the  charge  and  plead  the  truth  in 
justification  of  it.  This  I  am  led  to  do,  less  from  a  disposition  to 
confide  in  the  statements  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  than  from  an  assurance 
that  Gen.  Lee  would  never  see  with  indifference  the  father  of  his 
country  and  his  own  friend,  made  the  sport  of  insincere  profes 
sions  and  the  victim  of  dishonest  practices.  And  with  a  view  of 
reducing  this  charge  to  terms  more  definite  than  its  author  has 
thought  fit  to  employ ;  I  refer  you  to  an  extract  of  Gen.  Wash 
ington's  reply  to  this  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson  as  it  is  found  in 
Marshall. 

"  If  I  had  entertained  any  suspicion  before,  that  the  queries 
which  have  been  published  in  Bache's  paper  proceeded  from  you, 
the  assurances  you  have  given  of  the  contrary  would  have  re 
moved  them — but  the  truth  is,  I  harboured  none.  I  am  at  no 
loss  to  conjecture  from  what  source  they  flowed,  through  what 
channel  they  were  convened,  nor  for  what  purpose  they  and 
similar  publications  appear. — As  you  have  mentioned*  the  sub 
ject  yourself,  it  would  not  be  frank,  candid,  or  friendly  to  conceal, 
that  your  conduct  has  been  represented  as  derogating  from  that 
opinion  I  conceived  you  entertained  of  me  ;  that  to  your  parti- 

*  Vol.  5.  p.  674.  Here  Marshall,  who  does  not  quote  the  letter  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  says — "  In  the  same  letter"  (that  is  the  letter  of  the  19th  June,  1796, 
abusing  Gen.  Lee.)  '*  Mr.  Jefferson  had  stated  his  total  abstraction  from  party 
questions." 


12 

cular  friends  and  connexions  you  have  described,  and  they  have 
denounced  me,  as  a  person  under  a  dangerous  influence,  and 
that,  if  I  would  listen  more  to  some  other  opinions,  all  would  be 
well.  My  answer  invariably  has  been,  that  1  had  never  disco 
vered  any  thing  in  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Jefferson  to  raise  suspi 
cions  in  my  mind  of  his  sincerity  ;  that  if  he  would  retrace  my 
public  conduct  while  he  was  in  the  administration,  abundant 
proofs  would  occur  to  him  that  truth  and  right  decisions  were  the 
sole  objects  of  my  pursuit :  that  there  were  as  many  instances 
within  his  own  knowledge  of  my  having  decided  against  as  in 
favour  of  the  person  evidently  alluded  to  ;  and  moreover,  that  I 
was  no  believer  in  the  infallibility  of  the  politics  or  measures  of 
any  man  living.  In  short,  that  I  was  no  party  man  myself,  and 
that  the  first  wish  of  my  heart  was,  if  parties  did  exist,  to  recon 
cile  them.  To  this  I  may  add,  and  very  truly,  that  until  the  last 
year  or  two;  I  had  no  conception  that  parties  would,  or  even  could 
go  the  lengths  1  have  been  witness  to ;  nor  did  I  believe  until 
lately,  that  it  was  within  the  bounds  of  probability — hardly 
within  those  of  possibility,  that  while  I  was  using  my  utmost 
exertions  to  establish  a  national  character  of  our  own.  independent 
as  far  as  our  obligations  and  justice  would  permit,  of  every  nation 
of  the  earth  ;  and  wished  by  steering  a  steady  course,  to  preserve 
this  country  from  the  horrors  of  a  desolating  war,  I  should  be 
accused  of  being  the  enemy  of  one  nation,  and  subject  to  the  in 
fluence  of  another  ;  and  to  prove  it,  that  every  act  of  my  admin 
istration  would  be  tortured,  and  the  grossest  and  most  invidious 
misrepresentations  of  them  be  made,  by  giving  one  side  only  of 
the  subject,  and  that  too  in  such  exaggerated  and  indecent  terms 
as  could  scarcely  be  applied  to  a  Nero,  to  a  notorious  defaulter — 
or  even  to  a  common  pick-pocket.  But  enough  of  this — I  have 
already  gone  further  in  the  expression  of  my  feelings  than  I  in 
tended." 

The  point  thus  arising  for  inquiry,  being  made  by  the  question 
whether  Gen.  Lee's  communications  to  Gen.  Washington  were 
true  or  false,  it  is  obviously  .necessary  antecedently  to  determine 
what  they  were.  Mr.  Jefferson  neither  specifies  his  acts  nor  re 
peats  his  language.  He  asserts,  on  hearsay  authority,  that  he 
"  had  tried  to  sow  tares"  between  him  and  Gen.  Washington 
"  by  representing  him  as  still  engaged  in  the  bustle  of  politics,  and 
in  turbulence  and  intrigue  against  the  government."  These  ex 
pressions  convey  nothing  like  distinct  information,  and  it  is  im 
possible  to  conceive  that  in  warning  Gen.  Washington  of  the 
danger  of  confidence  in  Mr.  Jefferson,  Gen.  Lee  should  not  have 
expressed. himself  more  specifically,  should  not  have  drawn  the 


13 

attention  of  Gen.  Washington  to  instances  in  that  gentleman'a 
practices  or  language.  Accordingly,  if  we  refer  to  Gen.  Wash 
ington's  reply  to  this  part  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  Letter,  we  shall  dis 
cover  with  sufficient  precision  not  only  what  Gen.  Lee's  informa 
tion  was,  but  that  it  consisted  of  definite  and  substantial  statements. 
In  that  letter  it  is  observed.  "  As  you  have  mentioned  the  subject 
yourself,  it  would  not  be  frank,  candid,  or  friendly,  to  conceal,  that 
your  conduct  has  been  represented  as  derogating  from  that  opinion 
I  conceived  you  entertained  of  me  ;  that  to  your  particular  friends 
arid  connexions  you  have  described,  and  they  have  denounced 
me,  as  a  person  under  a  dangerous  influence,  and  that  if  I  would 
listen  more  to  some  other  opinions  all  would  be  well." 

As  no  man  since  Mr.  Jefferson's  death,  will  doubt  the  truth  of 
Gen.  Washington's  solemn  declarations  upon  matters  of  fact,  it 
may  be  safely  assumed  that  this  was  the  substance  of  Gen.  Lee's 
information  to  him.  He  may  be  supposed  to  have  said.  "  7 
have  good  reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  conduct  to 
wards  you  does  not  correspond  with  his  professions — that  he 
represents  you  as  guided  implicitly  by  the  counsels  of  Hamil 
ton'  and  thereby  operated  on  by  a  dangerous  bias  in  favour 
of  Great  Britain — and  gives  out  that  if  you  would  listen 
more  to  some  other  opinions  all  would  yet  be  well.'1''  Now 
although  this  is  a  fair  version  of  Gen.  Washington's  account  of 
the  information  he  received,  I  have  no  fear  of  proving  that  so  far 
from  overstepping  the  truth,  it  falls  very  far  short  of  it. 

In  the  mean  time  it  will  not  be  impertinent  to  remark  the  con 
trast  between  the  clearness  and  sobriety  of  Gen.  Lee's  communi 
cation,  and  the  obscurity  and  intemperance  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  re 
probation  of  it.  Without  pretending  to  know  or  pausing  to 
inquire  what  in  reality  had  been  alledged  against  him — which 
any  one  conscious  of  fair  dealing  would  have  done,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  admitting  it  if  true,  or  denying  it  if  false — he  denounces 
it  en  masse  as  a  contemptible  slander  ;  boldly  appeals  to  the  un 
suspecting  temper  of  the  General  in  contradiction  of  it ;  ridicules 
and  vilifies,  without  mentioning  his  name,  the  character  of  its 
author ;  thus  anxiously  endeavouring,  by  covering  his  statements 
with  discredit,  to  conceal  them  from  examination :  with  one  hand 
casting  filth  on  the  reputation  of  Gen.  Lee,  and  throwing  dust 
with  the  other  in  the  eyes  of  Gen.  Washington. 

With  this  spiteful  impatience  at  the  approach  of  truth,  the 
tumult  and  licentiousness  of  his  language,  which,  considering  his 
own  eminence,  the  standing  of  Gen.  Lee,  and  the  character  of 
Gen.  Washington — must  excite  the  surprise  of  every  reader— 
exactly  correspond.  Applying  to  it  that  process  of  reasoning  by 


14 

i 

which  moral  effects  are  traced  to  their*causes.  you  will  find,  that 
instead  of  proving  a  sense  of  injustice,  it  betrays  an  apprehension 
of  injury — a  consciousness  that  any  disclosures  of  his  conduct 
leading  to  an  investigation  of  his  proceedings  in  this  respect,  might 
expose  him  to  the  reproaches  and  indignation  of  Gen.  Washing- 
tori  ;  whose  open  denunciation  at  that  time,  he  knew  would  be 
fatal  to  his  popularity,  and  whose  wrath  he  feelingly  declares 
(Vol.  4.  p.  236.)  when  once  aroused,  was  "  most  tremendous." 

Nor  are  these  distrustful  impressions  with  regard  to  this  pas 
sage,  weakened  by  a  closer  analysis  of  its  terms.  He  alleges  that 
Gen.  Lee  "  had  tried  to  sow  tares  between  him  and  Gen.  Wash 
ington  by  representing  him  as  still  engaged  in  the  bustle  of 
politics  and  in  turbulence  and  intrigue  against  the  government." 
The  phrase  "  to  sow  tares"  is  a  scriptural  one,  and  in  order  to 
measure  its  meaning  here,  it  must,  be  compared  with  its  original 
employment.  In  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  xiii.  24.,  our 
Saviour  thus  expresses  himself — "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
likened  unto  a  man  which  sowed  good  seed  in  his  field.  But 
while  men  slept,  his  enemy  came  and  sowed  tares  among  the 
wheat,  and  went  his  way."  Mr.  Jefferson  intended  therefore  to 
convey  this  proposition  to  Gen.  Washington's  mind.  While 
sentiments  of  mutual  confidence  and  respect  subsisted  betiveen 
us,  pure  as  the  good  seed  which  a  man  sows  in  his  field  ; 
Ocn.  Lee,  a  secret  enemy  to  me  if  not  to  you,  came  and  en 
deavoured  to  destroy  it  by  false  and  malicious  aspersions, 
which  are  as  noxious  and  as  unworthy  of  your  attention  as 
the  tares  that  spring  up  in  wheat  are  of  the  husbandman's 
care. 

The  next  phrase  is  unfortunate  in  saying  that  Gen.  Lee  repre 
sented  him  as  engaged  in  "the  bustle  of  politics," — for  that  is  the 
very  reverse  of  what  Gen.  Lee  did  say,  and  of  what  will  be 
proved  to  have  been  the  fact.  Gen.  Lee  said  his  misrepresenta 
tions  were  addressed  to  his  "  particular  friends  and  connexions" 
— were  secret,  and  therefore  the  more  dangerous  and  the  more 
detestable.  Had  he  been  engaged  in  the  "  bustle  of  politics" 
there  would  have  been  neither  room  for  his  concealment,  nor 
need  for  Gen.  Lee's  intelligence.  The  expression  too,  "  engaged 
in  turbulence  and  intrigue  against  the  government/' — betrays 
equal  inattention  to  facts,  and  the  same  aversion  that  has  been 
already  noticed  to  a  candid  explanation  of  his  conduct.  It  is  im 
possible  to  conceive  that  a  person  could  be  at  once  turbulent  and 
intriguing  in  his  opposition.  It  would  be  as  rational  to  affirm 
that  he  was  at  the  same  time  loud  and  silent — or  active  and  still 
— or  honest  and  dishonest.  Gen.  Lee  could  have  had  no  cause 


15 

to  fall  into  such  confusion  of  thought,  or  to  employ  such  absurdity 
of  language.  And  Mr.  Jefferson  in  doing  so  shows  that  he  was 
more  intent  upon  purposes  of  resentment  and  fraud,  than  upon 
the  dictates  of  truth  and  reason.  The  entire  passage  is  indeed  a 
striking  example  of  one  of  those  "  miscarriages" — to  which  a 
favourite  author  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  Locke,  says  the  mind  is  subject, 
when  under  the  influence  of  improper  motives.  "  And  these  one 
may  observe  commonly  content  themselves  with  words  which 
have  no  distinct  ideas  to  them,  though  in  other  matters  that  they 
come  with  an  unbiassed  indifferency  to,  they  want  not  abilities  to 
talk  and  hear  reason,*  &c." 

With  respect  to  the  question,  whether  the  intelligence  thus 
admitted  to  have  been  communicated  by  Gen.  Lee  to  Gen. 
Washington,  was  true  or  false  ;  it  is  evident  that  its  decision 
must  have  a  v§ry  different  effect  upon  the  antagonist  reputations 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Gen.  Lee.  Were  it  made  to  appear  that 
Mr.  Jefferson  never  did  "  describe  Gen.  Washington  to  his  parti 
cular  friends  and  connexions  as  a  person  under  a  dangerous  in 
fluence,"  as  too  much  guided  by  the  counsels  of  Hamilton,  and 
subject  thereby  to  an  improper  bias  in  favour  of  Great  Britain, 
it  would  by  no  means  follow  that  Gen.  Lee  was  guilty  of  untruth 
or  was  wanting  in  veracity.  He  would  still  be  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  his  general  character  in  support  of  the  integrity  of  his 
motives,  and  of  the  justice  of  limiting  the  decision  against  him  to 
the  venial  fact,  of  having  repeated  what  was  false  because  he  be 
lieved  it  to  be  true.  On  the  other  hand,  should  it  be  demonstrated 
that  his  information  respecting  the  late  prime  minister  and  still 
avowed  friend  of  Gen.  Washington,  was  true — that  Mr.  Jefferson, 
while  denouncing  it  to  him  as  "  the  slander  of  a  dirty  intriguer," 
while  amusing  him  by  the  show  of  esteem  and  friendship,  by 
professing  a  refined  aversion  to  politics,  and  an  exclusive  devotion 
to  rural  labours  and  the  charms  of  philosophy  ;  was  actually  em 
ployed  and  had  been  busily  engaged,  from  a  period  not  long  sub 
sequent  to  his  retirement  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  in 
disparaging  his  public  character,  and  misrepresenting  his  official 
measures  ;  in  endeavouring  throughout  the  circle  of  his  prominent 
acquaintances  by  the  artful  adaptation  of  suitable  excitements  to 
dissipate  confidence,  to  stimulate  hostility,  to  exasperate  discontent, 
and  to  provoke  suspicion,  wherever  these  dispositions  towards  his 
administration  appeared  or  were  suspected  ;  a  deliberate  falsehood 
must  be  proved  against  Mr.  Jefferson,  attended  by  the  aggravating 

*  Essay  on  the  Conduct  of  the  Understanding.     Sec.  3. 


16 

circumstances  of  injustice  to  Gen.  Lee,  and  hypocrisy  and  ingra 
titude  to  Gen.  Washington. 

As  this  is  to  be  the  alternative  issue  of  the  question— as  on  one 
side,  it  cannot  dishonour  the  name  of  Gen.  Lee,  and  on  the  other 
may  bring  a  stain  on  the  memory  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  may  bo 
supposed  to  approach  it  with  less  diffidence  as  a  son  than  as  a 
citizen.  To  withdraw  myself  from  among,  tjie  admirers  of  this 
distinguished  man,  and  take  a  station  in  the  ranks  of  those  who 
doubt  the  justice  of  his  popularity,  and  the  solidity  of  his  fame,  is 
a  change  of  position,  which  however  just  and  necessary,  you  may 
suppose  to  be  inconvenient,  as  little  desired  as  premeditated,  one 
which  I  am  forced  to  by  causes  that  place  me  in  a  defensive  atti 
tude,  which  you  must  admit  are  imperative,  and  which  so  far 
from  being  of  my  creation,  owe  their  unwelcome  existence  to  the 
pertinacious  volition  and  injurious  spirit  of  Mr.  Jefferson  himself. 

In  conducting  the  controversy  thus  imposed  on  me,  it  will  occur 
to  your  reflection,  that  it  is  both  my  right  and  my  duty,  as  the 
representative  of  my  father,  to  assume  that  line  of  defence  and  to 
employ  those  means  of  vindication,  which  be  himself,  if  living, 
would  have  been  entitled  to  adopt.  It  will  likewise  appear  that 
inasmuch  as  the  passage,  in  which  Mr,  Jefferson  traduced  and 
reproached  him,  contains  both  a  contradiction  of  his  assertions  and 
an  attack  upon  his  character,  he  might,  without  transgressing  the 
limits  of  moderation  or  indulging  feelings  of  revenge,  have  en 
deavoured  to  establish  from  circumstances  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  con 
duct  the  truth  of  his  own  assertions,  and  the  absence  of  that  virtue 
in  the  imputations  of  his  adversary.  This  course  of  proceeding, 
it  is  farther  evident,  will  lead  to  the  examination  of  the  sincerity  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  professions  as  a  friend  to  General  Washington,  the 
soundness  of  his  pretensions  as  an  enlightened  patriot,  and  the 
justice  of  his  reputation  as  an  upright  statesman — to  the  inquiry 
whether  his  reasonings  were  logical,  his  opinions  just,  his  state 
ments  true,  or  his  motives  honourable.  This  operation  will 
naturally  be  the  more  exigent  and  rigorous  from  the  lofty  manner 
in  which  the  volumes  that  contain  his  slander  of  General  Lee  are 
given  to  the  world,  as  displaying,  "  genius,  learning,  philosophic 
inspiration,  generous  devotion  to  virtue,  and  love  of  country, "- 
which  having  a  tendancy  to  give  weight  to  his  attack,  justly  ex 
poses  him  to  the  full  effect  of  the  lex  talionis,  the  law  of  moral 
re-action  as  applied  to  that  offence. 

From  the  stations  he  filled,  the  affairs  with  which  he  was  con 
versant,  the  important  measures  he  directed,  and  the  high  reputa 
tion  he  acquired,  the  task  thus  proposed  is  by  no  means  a  light 
one  ;  suitable  rather  to  the  patient  and  ambitious  labours  of  a 


17 

historian,  than  to  the  unpretending  and  reluctant  essay  of  an 
advocate. 

Yet  all  unequal  and  unprepared  as  I  am  for  its  full  accomplish 
ment,  I  feel  conscious  of  no  apprehension  that  as  far  as  the  object, 
of  my  father's  vindication  is  involved,  1  shall  fail  in  effecting  it. 

In  order  to  prove  that  his  information  to  General  Washington 
was  not  only  true,  but  such  as  was  to  be  expected  from  a  faithful 
friend  and  a  man  of  honour,  it  will  only  be  necessary  to  refer  to 
the  "  Writings"  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  Happily  they  contain  the 
antidote  to  their  own  poison.  From  them  it  appears  that  upon 
General  Washington's  first  election  to  the  Presidency,  he  selected 
Mr.  Jefferson  for  the  chief  office  of  his  Cabinet ;  a  distinction,  tho 
honour  of  which  was  enhanced  by  expressions  of  the  greatest 
kindness.  On  that  occasion,  he  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson, 
(Vol.  1,  p.  144.) 

New- York,  October  13th,  1789. 

Sir, — In  the  selection  of  characters  to  fill  the  important  offices  of 
government  in  the  United  States,  I  was  naturally  led  to  contem 
plate  the  talents  and  dispositions  I  knew  you  to  possess,  and 
entertain  for  the  service  of  your  country  ;  and  without  being  able 
to  consult  your  inclinations,  or  to  derive  any  knowledge  of  your 
intention  from  your  letters,  either  to  myself  or  to  any  other  of 
your  friends,  I  was  determined,  as  well  by  motives  of  private 
regard,  as  a  conviction  of  public  propriety,  to  nominate  you  for  the 
department  of  state." 

If  the  language  of  this  letter  breathes  confidence  and  regard, 
that  in  which  it  was  answered  was  not  less  expressive  of 
courtly  homage,  and  of  personal  respect  and  attachment.  After 
deprecating  the  disproportion  between  the  duties  of  the  office 
and  his  own  qualifications,  he  tells  the  President,  (Vol.  3,  p. 
46.)  "My  chief  comfort  will  be  to  work  under  your  eye,  my 
only  shelter  the  authority  of  your  name,  and  the  wisdom  of 
measures  to  be  dictated  by  you,  and  implicitly  executed  by  me. 
As  early  as  possible  in  March,  I  shall  have  the  honour  of  waiting 
on  you  in  New- York.  In  the  mean  time,  I  have  that  of  tender 
ing  you  the  homage  of  those  sentiments  of  respectful  attachment 
with  which  I  am,"  &c.  &c. 

Thus  covered  with  the  mantle  of  honour  and  office,  and  glow 
ing  with  the  blushes  of  modesty  and  gratitude,  Mr.  Jefferson 
entered  the  department  of  State,  in  March,  1790 ;  and  having 
discharged  its  duties  with  more  than  common  ability  until 
December  1793,  voluntarily  retired  from  it,  against  the  earnest 
and  repeated  instances  of  Gen.  Washington.  The  force  of  these 

3 


18 

it  is  said  he  was  able  to  resist,  principally*  by  motives  arising  out 
of  a  decided  preference  for  the  "  pursuits  of  private  life,"  (Vol.  4, 
p.  469.)  and  an  "  excessive  repugnance  to  public  life."  (p.  492.) 
motives  which  were  so  strong  and  steady,  that  although  the 
president  complained  (p.  492.)  of  being  "  deserted  by  those  on 
whose  aid  he  had  counted,"  and  entreated  (p.  494.)  that  he 
"  would  only  stay  in  till  the  end  of  another  quarter,"  the  philoso 
phic  and  eremitical  secretary,  disgusted  with  "  the  bustle  of 
politics,"  and  impatient  of  the  trammels  of  office,  could  not  give 
his  consent. 

From  his  own  account  it  seems  (pp.  484,  501.)  that  through 
out  this  period,  he  enjoyed  in  an  equal  degree  with  Hamilton  the 
confidence  and  favour  of  the  President,  that  he  was  consulted  as 
to  the  selection  of  his  successor,  (p.  493.)  that  for  that  station, 
Mr.  Madison  was  the  President's  first  choice,  but  he  had  expressed 
himself  too  averse  to  public  office,  to  admit  a  hope  of  his  accepting 
it ;  and  that  although  this  official  separation  took  place,  Mr. 
Jefferson  carried  with  him  into  retirement  the  same  high  opinion 
of  "  his  talents  and  disposition  to  serve  his  country,"  and  the  same 
degree  of  "private  regard"  and  public  confidence,  which  had 
prompted  Gen.  Washington  to  appoint  him. 

How  were  these  sentiments  of  unabated  friendship,  of  confiding 
attachment  returned  ?  In  December,  1794,  a  single  twelvemonth 
after  his  resignation,  at  a  time  when  no  decrease  of  regard  or 
esteem  had  taken  place,  or  been  suspected  on  the  part  of  Gen. 
Washington — when  the  father  of  his  country,  as  he  had  told  the 
secretary  (Vol.  4,  p.  492.)  had  a  right  to  count  on  his  aid,  had  a 
right  to  expect  not  only  his  public,  but  his  personal  support,  his 
encouragement  in  the  prosecution  of  right  measures,  his  advice 
when  in  danger  of  adopting  wrong  ones  ;  a  just,  if  not  a  favour 
able  view  of  his  motives,  and  a  fair,  if  not  an  indulgent  account 
of  his  mistakes,  Mr.  Jefferson  after  writing  to  the  President  in 
May,  1794,  (Vol.  3,  p.  306.)  "  but  I  cherish  tranquillity  too  much 
to  suffer  political  things  to  enter  my  mind  at  all ;"  and  to  the 
Secretary  of  State,  his  successor,  in  September  of  the  same  year, 
"  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  retain  the  esteem  and  approbation 
of  the  President,  and  this  forms  the  only  ground  of  any  reluctance 
at  being  unable  to  comply  with  every  wish  of  his.  Pray  convey 
these  sentiments  and  a  thousand  more  to  him  which  my  situation 
does  not  permit  me  to  go  into,"  took  occasion  to  make  the  follow 
ing  remarks  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison. 

"  The  denunciation  of  the  Democratic  Societies  is  one  of  the 
extraordinary  acts  of  boldness  of  which  we  have  seen  so  many 
from  the  faction  of  monocrats.  It  is  wonderful  indeed,  that  the 
President  should  have  permitted  himself  to  be  the  organ  of  such 


19 

an  attack  on  the  freedom  of  discussion,  the  freedom  of  writing, 
printing  and  publishing.  It  must  be  a  matter  of  rare  curiosity  to 
get  at  the  modifications  of  these  rights  proposed  by  them,  and  to 
see  what  line  their  ingenuity  would  draw,  between  democratical 
societies  whose  avowed  object  is  the  nourishment  of  the  republican 
principles  of  our  constitution,  and  the  society  of  the  Cincinnati,  a 
self-created  one  ;  carving  out  for  itself  hereditary  distinctions, 
lowering  over  our  Constitution  eternally,  meeting  together  in  all 
parts  of  the  union,  periodically,  with  closed  doors,  accumulating 
a  capital  in  their  separate  treasury,  corresponding  secretly,  and 
regularly,  and  of  which  society,  the  very  persons  denouncing  the 
democrats,  are  themselves  the  fathers,  founders,  and  high  officers. 
Their  sight  must  be  perfectly  dazzled  by  the  glittering  of  crowns 
and  coronets,  not  to  see  the  extravagance  of  the  proposition  to 
suppress  the  friends  of  general  freedom,  while  those  who  wish  to 
confine  that  freedom  to  the  few,  are  permitted  to  go  on  in  their 
principles  and  practices.  I  here  put  out  of  sight  the  persons  whose 
misbehaviour  has  been  taken  advantage  of,  to  slander  the  friends 
of  popular  rights  ;  and  I  am  happy  to  observe,  that  as  far  as  the 
circle  of  my  observation  and  information  extends,  every  body 
has  lost  sight  of  them,  and  views  the  abstract  attempt  on  their 
natural  and  constitutional  rights  in  all  its  nakedness.  J  have 
never  heard,  or  heard  of,  a  single  expression  or  opinion  which  did 
not  condemn  it  as  an  inexcusable  aggression.  And  with  respect 
to  the  transactions  against  the  excise  law,  it  appears  to  me  that 
you  are  all  swept  away  in  the  torrent  of  governmental  opinions,  or 
that  we  do  not  know  what  those  transactions  have  been.  We 
know  of  none  which,  according  to  the  definitions  of  the  law  have 
been  any  thing  more  than  riotous.  There  was  indeed  a  meeting 
to  consult  about  a  separation.  But  to  consult  on  a  question  does 
not  amount  to  a  determination  of  that  question  in  the  affirmative, 
still  less  to  the  acting  on  such  a  determination  ;  but  we  shall  see, 
I  suppose  what  the  court  lawyers,  and  courtly  judges,  and  would- 
be  ambassadors,  will  make  of  it.  The  excise  law  is  an  infernal 
one.  The  first  error  was  to  admit  it  by  the  constitution  ;  the 
second,  to  act  on  that  admission,  the  third  and  last  will  be,  to 
make  it  the  instrument  of  dismembering  the  union,  and  setting 
us  all  afloat  to  choose  what  part  of  it  we  will  adhere  to.  The 
information  of  our  militia  returned  from  the  westward,  is  uniform, 
that  though  the  people  there,  let  them  pass  quietly,  they  were 
objects  of  their  laughter,  not  of  their  fear  ;  that  one  thousand  men 
could  have  cut  off  their  whole  force  in  a  thousand  places  in  the 
Alleghany ;  that  their  detestation  of  the  excise  law  is  universal,  and 
has  now  associated  to  it,  a  detestation  of  the  government ;  and 


20 

that  separation,  which  perhaps  was  a  very  distant  and  problemati 
cal  event,  4s  now  near,  and  certain,  and  determined  in  the  mind 
of  every  man.     I  expected  to  have  seen  some  justification  of  arm 
ing  one  part  of  the  society  against  another ;  of  declaring  a  civil 
war  the  moment  before  the  meeting  of  that  body  which  has  the  sole 
right  of  declaring  war ;  of  being  so  patient  of  the  kicks  and  scoffs  of 
our  enemies,  and  rising  at  a  feather  against  our  friends  ;  of  adding 
a  million  to  the  public  debt  and  deriding  us  with  recommendations 
to  pay  it  if  we  can,  &c.  &c.     But  the  part  of  the  speech  that  was 
to  be  taken  as  a  justification  of  the  armament,  reminded  me  of 
parson  Saunder's  demonstration,  why  minus  into  minus  makes 
plus.     After  a  parcel  of  shreds  of  stuff  from  ^Esop's  Fables,  and 
Tom  Thumb,  be  jumps  all  at  once  into  his  ergo,  minus  multi 
plied  into  ?ninus  makes  plus.     Just  so  the  fifteen  thousand  men 
enter  after  the  fables  in  the  speech.     However,  the  time  is  coming 
when  we  shall  fetch  up  the  lee  way  of  our  vessel.     The  changes 
in  your  house,*  I  see  are  going  on  for  the  better,  and  even  the 
Augean  herd  over  your  heads  are  slowly  purging  off  their  im 
purities.     Hold  on  then,  my  dear  friend,  that  we  may  not  ship 
wreck  in  the  meanwhile.     I  do  not  see  in  the  minds  of  those  with 
whom  I  converse,  a  greater  affliction  than  the  fear  of  your  retire 
ment  ;  but  this  must  not  be,  unless  to  a  more  splendid  and  a  more 
efficacious  post.     There  I  should  rejoice  to  see  you ;  I  hope  I 
may  say,  I  shall  rejoice  to  see  you.     I  have  long  had  much  in 
my  mind  to  say  to  you  on  that  subject,  but  double  delicacies  have 
kept  me  silent.     I  ought  perhaps  to  say,  while  I  would  not  give 
up  my  own  retirement  for  the  empire  of  the  universe,  how  I  can 
justify  wishing  one  whose  happiness  I  have  so  much  at  heart  as 
yours,  to  take  the  front  of  the  battle  which  is  fighting  for  my 
security.     This  would  be  easy  enough  to  be  done,  but  not  at  the 
heel  of  a  lengthy  epistle."     Here  occurs  a  hiatus,  as  if  part  of  the 
letter  was  suppressed  by  the  editor,  and  it  concludes,  "  Present 
me  respectfully  to  Mrs.  Madison,  and  pray  her  to  keep  you  where 
you   are,  for   her   own  satisfaction  and   the   public   good,  and 
accept,"  &c.  &c. 

To  exhibit  thoroughly  the  meaning  of  this  letter  ;  to  take  a 
chart  of  its  misrepresentations  ;  to  sound  the  depths  of  its  detrac 
tion,  and  point  out  the  shallows  of  its  duplicity  ;  to  mark  the  cur 
rents  of  injustice,  the  recesses  of  guile,  and  the  points  of  self-in 
terest  with  which  it  abounds,  it  will  be  necessary  to  recur  to  the 
political  parties,  which,  at  the  time  it  was  written,  prevailed  in  the 
United  States.  This  shall  be  done  in  a  letter  by  the  next  packet. 

*  Mr.  Madison  was  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
Congress  was  then  in  Session. 


21 


LETTER  II. 

IN  going  back  to  the  parties  of  1794,  you  must  be  aware  that 
in  recalling  old  and  intricate  matters  to  your  memory,  instead  of 
courting  your  attention  by  bold  or  novel  subjects,  I  may  well  prove 
to  be  tedious  where  I  earnestly  labour  to  be  brief.  But  this  in 
convenience,  inherent  in  the  nature  of  my  undertaking,  must  be 
incurred  in  order  to  set  in  a  suitable  light  the  remarks  I  have  to 
make  upon  this  memorable  letter  to  Mr.  Madison.  So  the  painter 
who  portrays  one  of  our  naval  victories,  is  obliged  to  detach  his 
pencil  from  the  principal  objects,  in  order  to  labour  on  the  reflect 
ing  concomitants,  the  waves,  the  clouds,  and  the  sky. 

These  parties  then  took  their  origin,  as  may  be  supposed,  in 
the  nature  of  man  and  in  the  character  of  our  institutions,  and 
were  modified  in  their  progress  by  the  policy  of  foreign  states,  by 
circumstances  in  our  domestic  situation,  and  by  the  complexion  of 
individual  ambition.  In  reference  to  their  first  cause  ;  the  war 
of  the  revolution  having  divided  our  principal  citizens  into  men 
of  the  sword,  and  men  of  the  pen,  these,  when  it  was  concluded, 
retained  the  temper  of  mind  and  habits  of  thinking,  with  respect 
to  public  affairs,  which  the  part  they  had  respectively  borne  in 
its  events,  naturally  engendered. 

The  military  class,  by  whose  swords  and  hardships,  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  country  had  been  established,  had  pursued  that 
object  with  an  ardour  and  constancy  proportioned  to  its  magni 
tude  and  difficulty.  Through  the  long  series  of  dangers  which 
they  braved,  of  obstacles  they  encountered,  of  vexations  they  sub 
mitted  to,  and  privations  they  endured,  sustained  by  the  dignity 
of  a  sacred  cause,  and  animated  by  the  example  of  their  immortal 
leader,  their  zeal  grew  more  determined  and  their  patriotism 
warmer  ;  as  the  breath  of  the  Olympic  horses  was  said  to  take 
fire,  and  the  chariot  wheels  to  kindle,  in  proportion  as  they  neared 
the  goal.  And  these  ardent  patriots,  indefatigable  in  the  career 
of  public  duty,  having  finished  the  work  of  our  national  deliver 
ance,  pressed  forward  to  the  no  less  arduous  task  of  confirming 
our  civil  liberty. 

Their  experience  had  taught  them  to  regret  that  the  patriotism 
and  resources  of  the  nation,  were  not  subjected  to  the  management 
of  a  regular  and  efficient  authority,  and  to  apprehend  that  as  soon 
as  peace  should  have  removed  the  necessities  of  war  and  the 
weight  of  military  command,  the  union  of  the  states  would  be 
broken  into  fragments,  and  the  power  of  the  nation  reduced  to 
insignificance.  They  were,  therefore,  the  eager  advocates  of  a 


firm  confederation,  and  of  a  general  government,  with  powers 
sufficient  to  maintain  the  peace,  and  provide  for  the  defence  of 
the  country,  and  to  discharge  the  various  obligations  at  home  and 
abroad,  incident  to  the  station  in  the  sisterhood  of  nations,  which 
America,  the  fairest  and  the  youngest,  had  just  assumed. 

The  men  of  the  pen,  on  the  contrary,  were  disposed  to  insist 
on  the  danger  of  any  concession  of  power,  either  from  the  fund 
belonging  to  the  States,  or  the  mass  inherent  in  the  citizens. 
They  looked  with  jealousy  on  military  authority,  and  on  the 
habits  of  command,  with  which  those  who  had  borne  it,  were 
supposed  to  be  impressed.  They  questioned  the  prudence  of 
consulting  about  a  stronger  government,  and  of  risking  on  the 
sea  of  debate,  any  portion  of  that  freedom  we  had  just  vindicated  ; 
and  they  doubted  the  force  of  those  exigencies  which  were  said  to 
recommend  a  fundamental  change  of  existing  institutions. 

As  their  labours,  moreover,  had  been  confined  to  closets  of 
study  and  halls  of  deliberation,  exempt  from  the  danger  and  un 
attended  by  the  glory  of  war,  they  were  sensible  of  appearing 
before  the  public  as  vanquished  competitors  for  fame,  and  unequal 
candidates  for  popularity.  Towards  the  military  men,  therefore, 
they  felt  both  the  opposition  of  opinion,  and  the  rivalship  of  in 
terest — were  inclined  but  dubiously  to  the  creation  of  a  federal 
government,  and  when  its  establishment  was  resolved  on,  advo 
cates  generally  for  the  least  possible  delegation  of  power  to  it ;  a 
sentiment  conformable  to  their  general  theory,  and  agreeable  to 
the  jealousy  with  which  they  regarded  the  probable  ascendency 
of  their  rivals. 

Out  of  this  salutary  conflict  of  opinions  and  feelings,  of  doubt 
and  conviction,  amongst  its  framers,  the  federal  constitution  under 
which  we  have  continued  to  flourish,  arose — the  offspring  of 
anxious  deliberation,  of  sharpened  discussion,  of  various  interests, 
of  mutual  concession,  and  of  common  necessity  among  the  States, 
with  features  as  dimly  anticipated  by  its  authors,  as  those  of  her 
first-born  infant  by  a  mother's  hopes. 

"  Tantce  molis  erat  Romanam  condere  gentem." 

An  analysis  of  this  instrument  is  not  called  for. — It  will  be  suf 
ficient  to  observe  that  besides  the  co-ordinate  distribution  of  power 
into  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  departments,  it  contained 
an  express  division  of  it,  into  that  undefined  portion  which  was 
reserved  by  the  several  States  and  their  respective  citizens,  and 
that  limited  one  which  was  delegated  to  the  federal  head — that  it 
provided  for  its  own  amendment,  and  as  far  as  human  wisdom 
can  reach,  for  its  own  [)erpetuity. 


23 

The  contrariety  of  sentiments  that  had  attended  its  formation, 
followed  upon  every  occasion  of  its  interpretation,  and  in  a  short 
time  after  the  commencement  of  its  administration,  differences  in 
the  construction  of  its  provisions,  as  they  were  elicited  by  the 
discussion  and  execution  of  legislative  measures,  became  matured 
into  the  consistency  of  organised  parties.  To  confirm  them,  came 
opposing  views  of  expediency  and  justice  as  to  foreign  relations, 
and  domestic  concerns — the  influence  of  the  French  revolution — 
the  effect  of  disputes  with  England — and  the  discordant  interests 
of  those  who  possessed,  and  of  those  who  aspired  to,  power. 

The  denominations  of  these  parties  were  as  various  as  the 
stages  they  passed  through,  and  were  descriptive  sometimes  of 
their  respective  opinions,  and  at  others  expressive  of  the  temper 
in  which  they  had  been  invented  and  applied.  Thus  when  they 
divided  upon  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  its  supporters  were 
called  federalists,  and  its  opposers  anti-federalists.  When  they 
differed  as  to  the  propriety  of  maintaining  neutrality  between 
France  and  England,  and  of  paying  the  national  debt,  those  who 
defended  these  measures  of  Washington's  administration  were 
stigmatised  as  Aristocrats,  while  their  antagonists  were  termed 
Democrats.  Finally,  to  those  who  persevered  in  approving  the 
principles  on  which  Washington  had  conducted  the  government, 
was  restored  the  appellation  of  federalists;  while  the  party  who 
hailed  the  rising  popularity  of  Mr.  Jefferson  as  the  probable  means 
of  rescuing  our  constitution  from  the  hands  of  a  faction  intent  on 
corrupting  their  principles  and  on  introducing  monarchy,  called 
themselves  republicans. 

This  classification,  though  good,  as  a  general  description,  is 
liable  of  course  to  exceptions — which,  however,  are  not  at  variance 
with  its  spirit.  The  temper,  the  interest,  or  the  connexion  of 
some  among  the  non-combatant  class,  placed  them  either  momen 
tarily  or  permanently  in  the  federal  ranks.  Thus  Mr.  Jay,  who 
was  personally  attached  to  Gen.  Washington,  had  been  secretary 
of  foreign  affairs  under  the  old  confederation,  where  he  felt  in 
their  full  force,  the  dangers  growing  out  of  its  insufficiency — and 
in  the  organization  of  the  new  government  had  been  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  judiciary — was  a  steady  adherent  of  the  federal 
party.  Thus  Patrick  Henry,  who  had  been  their  most  formi 
dable  adversary  in  regard  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  gave 
his  support  to  them  in  the  administration  of  Gen.  Washington, 
from  a  patriotic  desire  to  have  the  government  that  had  been 
agreed  on,  fairly  and  beneficially  conducted.  While  Mr.  Madison, 
who  opposed  in  Congress  almost  every  important  step  which 
Gen.  Washington  took  in  administering  the  government,  had 


24 

• 

been  among  the  most  zealous  of  those  statesmen  who  assisted  IK 
its  formation,  in  recommending  it  to  the  acceptance  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  and  in  vindicating  it  against  the  objections  of  Mr, 
Henry. 

On  the  other  hand — motives  of  feeling,  calculations  of  advance 
ment,  idiosyncrasies  of  character,  or  accidental  influences,  led 
some  of  the  military  men  to  take  their  station  in  the  opposite 
class.  For  example — Gen.  Gates,  who  had  failed  in  an  attempt 
to  supplant  Gen.  Washington  as  Commander-in-Chief,  and 
whose  disappointment  was  embittered  by  subsequent  misfortunes, 
fell  out  of  his  natural  position  and  became  a  partizan  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson.  Others,  whose  stations  in  their  proper  class,  promised  but 
a  slow  or  doubtful  promotion,  went  over  to  the  democratic  side 
from  a  hope  that,  as  glow-worms  shine  in  the  dark,  their  modicum 
of  military  reputation  would  become  distinguishable  by  a  society 
in  which  none  existed.  Some  yielded  to  the  force  of  counsel, 
eome  to  love  of  change,  and  some  to  sympathy  with  the  wild 
movements  of  the  French  revolution.  But  the  great  body  of  the 
military  class,  the  distinguished  officers  of  the  revolution,  such  as 
Hamilton,  Lincoln,  Knox,  Wayne,  Morgan,  Williams,  Lee, 
Howard,  the  Pinckney's,  Pickering,  Ogden,  Davie,  and  Brooks, 
were  the  firm  supporters  of  Gen.  Washington.  In  short,  it  was 
enough  to  see  a  member  of  that  class  to  set  him  down  as  a  fede 
ralist. 

Both  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Jefferson  were  abroad  on  diplomatic 
missions,  when  the  constitution  was  framed  and  adopted,  and  the 
parties  first  took  their  ground.  They  both  returned,  however, 
shortly  after — when  in  consequence  of  the  political  zeal  and 
abilities  which  Mr.  Adams  had  displayed  in  various  important 
situations,  together  with  his  geographical  position,  he  was  honour 
ably  associated  with  Gen.  Washington  in  the  first  election ;  and 
receiving  the  second  number  of  votes,  was  chosen  Vice  President 
of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  with  similar  claims— and  a  higher  reputation 
for  literary  and  scientific  attainments,  could  not  be  overlooked — 
and  enjoying  the  personal  friendship  of  the  President,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  by  him  placed  at  the  head  of  his  cabinet.  He  was  un 
derstood  to  be  in  favour  of  adopting  a  general  government,  but  to 
have  disapproved  several  important  features  in  the  system  that 
had  been  devised  ;  so  that  while  the  influence  of  his  station  and 
his  general  reputation,  secured  the  respect  of  both  parties,  his 
opinions,  provoked  the  displeasure  of  neither.  In  this  convenient 
neutrality  he  remained,  co-operating,  generally  in  the  measures 
of  the  President,  and  patronising  dexterously  the  opposition  to 


25 

them,*  until,  by  concurring  in  the  proposition  to  require  Genet's 
recall,  and  writing  an.  elaborate  despatch  in  exposure  of  his  inso 
lence  and  folly,  he  found  himself  in  danger  of  being  identified 
decisively  in  political  reputation  with  Gen.  Washington's  prin 
cipal  supporters,  and  of  losing  the  harvest  of  popularity  which  he 
had  secretly  sown,  and  studiously  cultivated  in  the^discontents  of 
the  party  opposed  to  him.  He  therefore  withdrew  from  the 
cabinet,  professing  an  irresistible  impatience  to  sink  for  ever  into 
profound  retirement,  and  an  irreversible  determination  to  cultivate 
to  the  day  of  his  death,  "  peas  and  philosophy  j"  extricating  him 
self  from  the  hostility  likely  to  attend  measures  in  the  conception 
and  execution  of  which  he  had  participated,  and  resolved  that  if 
it  did  not  fall  with  overwhelming  violence  on  Gen.  Washington 
and  his  friends,  it  should  not  be  for  want  of  his  secret  instigation. 
In  this  spirit  was  evidently  written  the  letter  which  is  now  to  be 
the  subject  of  examination. 

It  first  attacks  the  president  for  denouncing  in  his  speech  to 
Congress — which  had  been  delivered  about  a  month  previously — 
certain  political  clubs  or  associations,  which  under  the  denomina 
tion  of  Democratic  Societies,  had  set  themselves  up  in  various 
districts  of  the  United  States,  for  the  avewed  purpose  of  controlling 
the  foreign  policy  of  the  government,  of  saving  the  people  from 
the  iniquity  of  their  rulers,  and  keeping  alive,  by  inflaming 
public  opinion  against  the  character  and  measures  of  Gen.  Wash 
ington,  the  spirit  of  liberty,  which  they  represented  to  be  fast  de 
caying  under  the  influence  of  his  name  and  counsels. 

Adopting  for  their  model  the  revolutionary  clubs  of  France, 
which  were  then  engaged  in  their  work  of  proscription  and  havoc 
—they  appointed  committees  for  the  purpose  of  securing  con 
formity  of  schemes,  and  concert  of  action.  They  reprobated  the 
determination  of  the  Executive  to  maintain  a  neutral  position  be 
tween  France  and  England— as  a  base  forfeiture  of  our  obligation 
to  repay  by  military  assistance  to  the  former,  the  military  aid  we 
had  received  from  her  in  the  war  of  the  revolution  ;  exhorted  the 
people  to  disregard  it,  and  encouraged  generally,  contempt  for  the 
federal  government,  and  resistance  to  its  laws.  That  extraordi 
nary  envoy,  citizen  Genet,  a  perfect  conductor  of  the  folly  and 
violence  of  the  blood-stained  authorities  whom  lie  represented, 
relying  on  our  remaining  animosity  against  Great  Britain,  our 
corresponding  gratitude  to  France,  and  our  ultra-sympathy  in 
favour  of  her  apparent  efforts  for  freedom,  had  endeavoured  to 

*  Mr.  Madison  was  the  leader  of  thb  opposition  in  Congress,  and  Freneau, 
a  clerk  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  department  the  avowed  Editor  of  the  Gazette  that 
supported  it. 

4 


26 

% 

force  our  government  to  depart  from  its  wise  neutrality,  and  to 
engage  as  an  ally  of  France  in  the  war  with  England. 

In  this  attempt  he  proceeded  to  extremities  of  insolence  and 
presumption,  that  are  too  numerous  for  narration,  and  almost  too 
enormous  for  belief.  His  intemperance  and  errors  are  with  dig 
nity  alluded  to  by  Gen.  Washington,  in  a  message  to  Congress, 
are  summarily  recorded  by  Marshall  in  that  stage  of  his  history 
to  which  they  belong,*  and  are  ably  exposed  by  Mr.  Jefferson 
himself  in  a  despatch  of  the  16th  of  August,  1793,  from  the  de 
partment  of  state,  to  our  minister  in  France,  soliciting  his  recall. 
From  these  authorities  we  learn  that  taking  advantage  of  the  feel 
ings  of  our  people,  and  the  feebleness  of  our  infant  institutions — 
he  conducted  himself  towards  the  government,  as  if  the  United 
States,  instead  of  being  an  independent  nation,  was  a  dependency 
of  France — that  among  other  enormities  he  not  only  assumed  but 
exercised  the  right  of  fitting  out,  arming,  and  equipping  in  our 
ports,  privateers  to  cruise  against  the  commerce  of  nations  with 
whom  we  were  at  peacet — of  recruiting  from  among  our  citizens, 
seamen  to  navigate  and  fight  them — of  capturing  within  our 
waters,  the  vessels  of  friendly  nations  engaged  in  a  peaceful  com 
merce  with  ourselves — of  Condemning  prizes  so  made  by  virtue  of 
admiralty  powers,  vested  by  himself  in  the  Consuls  of  France  re 
siding  in  our  ports — all  this  in  open  violation  of  our  jurisdiction, 
contempt  of  our  sovereignty,  and  in  defiance  of  the  express  and 
repeated  interdiction  of  our  government,  communicated  through 
Mr.  Jefferson  himself. 

In  this  course  of  irregularity  and  outrage,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  well 
knew,  he  had  been  aided  and  abetted  by  the  democratic  societies 
— whose  most  active  members,  for  the  honour  of  our  native 
citizens,  be  it  remembered,  were  renegado  Irish  and  miscreant 
Frenchmen,  whose  evolutions  were  regulated  by  Genet,  and 
whose  dark  spirit  polluted  and  misled  the  generous  enthusiasm  of 
our  own  people. 

In  a  letter  of  the  26th  of  August,  1793,  addressed  to  Gen. 
Lee,  and  referring  to  his  appointment  as  commander-in-chief  of 
the  western  expedition,  Gen.  Washington  thus  speaks  of  these 
societies,  "  I  consider  this  insurrection  as  the  first  formidable 
fruit  of  the  democratic  societies ;  brought  forth  I  believe  too  pre 
maturely  for  their  own  views,  which  may  contribute  to  the  anni 
hilation  of  them.  That  these  societies  were  instituted  by  the 
artful  and  designing  members,  (many  of  their  body  I  have  no 
doubt  mean  well,  but  know  little  of  the  real  plan)  primarily  to 

*  Vol.  5.  p.  p.  409.  &  79.  t  England  and  Holland. 


27 

sow  the  seeds  of  jealousy  and  distrust  among  the  people,  of  the 
government,  by  destroying  all  confidence  in  the  administration 
of  it ; — and  that  these  doctrines  have  been  budding  ever  since — 
is  not  new  to  any  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  characters  of 
their  leaders,  and  have  (has)  been  attentive  to  their  manoeuvres. 
I  early  gave  it  as  my  opinion  to  the  confidential  characters 
around  me,  that  if  these  societies  were  not  counteracted,  (not 
by  prosecutions,  the  ready  way  to  make  them  grow  stronger)  or 
did  not  fall  into  disesteem  from  the  knowledge  of  their  origin, 
and  the  views  with  which  they  had  been  instituted  by  their 
father  Genet,  for  purposes  well  known  to  the  government ;  they 
would  shake  the  government  to  its  foundation.  Time  and  cir 
cumstances  have  confirmed  me  in  this  opinion,  and  I  deeply 
regret  the  probable  consequences,  not  as  they  will  affect  me 
personally  (for  I  have  not  long  to  act  on  this  theatre,  and  sure 
I  am  that  not  a  man  among  them  can  be  more  anxious  to  put 
me  aside,  than  I  am  to  sink  into  the  profoundest  retirement)  lout 
because  I  see  under  popular  and  fascinating  guises,  the  most 
diabolical  attempts  to  destroy  the  best  fabric  of  human  govern 
ment  and  happiness  that  has  ever  been  presented  to  the  acceptance 
of  mankind."* 

An  explanation  of  the  means  here  alluded  to  as  adapted 
to  the  purpose  of  extirpating  the  influence  of  these  associa 
tions  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  diary  of  Cabinet  Con 
sultations,  held  on  the  1st  and  2d  of  August,  1793.  Prom 
this  it  appears  that  five  propositions  were  submitted  to  the  minis 
ters  of  State.  The  first  was  that  a  full  statement  of  Genet's 
conduct  be  communicated  to  our  envoy  in  France,  to  be  by  him 
laid  before  the  French  government — agreed  to  unanimously 
The  second,  that  in  that  letter  his  recall  be  required — Mr. 
Jefferson  preferring  that  it  should  be  a  desire  delicately  express 
ed,  the  other  members  in  favour  of  a  peremptory  demand.  Third, 
that  Genet  be  sent  off — proposed  by  the  Secretary  of  war,  but 
disagreed  to  by  every  other.  Fourth,  to  write  a  letter  to  Genet  the 
same  in  substance  as  that  to  our  minister  in  France,  and  let  him 
know  we  had  applied  for  his  recall.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  against 
this,  because  he  thought  it  would  render  Genet  extremely 
active  in  his  plans-,  and  endanger  confusion.  But  he  was 
overruled  by  the  other  three  gentlemen  and  the  president.  Fifth, 
that  a  publication  of  the  whole  correspondence^  and  state 
ment  of  the  proceedings  should  be  'made  by  way  of  appeal 
to  the  people.  This  Mr.  Jefferson  opposed  upon  two  grounds ; 
first,  that  it,  would  work  unpleasantly  at  home,  by  increasing 

*  Vol.  4.  pp.  489-90. 


28 

%  - 

the  vigour  and  importance  of  the  democratic  society*  which 
he  affirmed  had  for  its  object  solely  the  approaching  election  of 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  if  left  alorre,  \vould  die  away 
after  that  was  over — by  making  the  President  appear  to  be  a 
partizan — by  exposing  him  to  the  attacks  of  anonymous  writers, 
and  to  a  counter  appeal  which  Genet  would  in  all  probability 
publish.  The  second,  that  it  would  work  unpleasantly  abroad, 
by  indisposing  the  government  of  France,  and  gratifying  her 
enemies.  He  adds—"  the  President  manifestly  inclined  to  the 
appeal  to  the  people/' 

From  this  diary  it  is  evident  that  although  these  societies  were 
just  beginning  their  operations,  were  considered  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  as  having  but  a  local  object,  and  an  ephemeral  exis 
tence,  and  had  then  only  been  dangerous  through  their  incipient, 
though  admitted  connexion  with  Genet,  the  President  wras 
earnestly  in  favour  of  an  extraordinary  appeal  to  the  nation  at 
large,  for  the  purpose  of  counteracting  their  schemes  and  influence, 
and  bringing  them  into  disesteem,  and  that  Mr.  Jefferson  when 
called  on  for  his  opinion,  upon  the  honour  of  a  man  and  a  minis 
ter,  dissuaded  this  measure  solely  upon  the  ground  of  expedi 
ency —  never  intimating  a  scruple  on  that  of  principle,  or  alleg 
ing  that  it  would  "  make  the  President  the  organ  of  an  attack  on 
the  freedom  of  discussion,  the  freedom  of  writing,  printing,  and 
publishing" — or  the  instrument  of  a  "faction  of  monocrats 'in 
an  act  of  extraordinary  boldness." 

Yet  afterwards  when  they  had  extended  their  ramifications 
throughout  the  Union,  had  perse veringly  encouraged  and  justi 
fied  the  insolent  proceedings  of  Genet — had  stimulated  the  mal 
contents  of  western  Pennsylvania  into  a  violent  and  extending 
insurrection — then,  when  the  President  in  an  ordinary  commu 
nication  to  Congress,  relating  its  suppression,  in  alluding  (as 
he  was  bound  in  truth  and  justice  to  do)  to  the  causes  which 
had  excited  it — said  "  let  the  people  persevere  in  their  affectionate 
vigilance  over  that  precious  depository  of  American  happiness, 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  And  when  in  the  calm 
moments  of  reflection,  they  shall  have  retraced  the  origin  and 
progress  of  the  insurrection,  let  (hem  determine  whether  it 

*  The  original  and  central  society  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson  here  speaks, 
was  established  at  Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  the  general  government,  and  in 
immediate  connexion  with  Genet,  the  30th  May,  1793,  about  three  weeks 
after  Genet's  arrival  there,  and  two  months  before  this  conference.  The  affi 
liated  and  corresponding  associations  were  subsequently  organised  in  con 
cert  with  it,  in  various  cities  and  lowns  of  the  Union.  See  Marshall,  Vol.  5 
p.  426. 


has  not  been  fomented  by  combinations  of  men,  who  careless 
of  consequences,  and  disregarding  the  unerring  truth  that 
those  who  rouse,  cannot  always  appease,  a  civil  convulsion, 
have  disseminated,  from  ignorance  or  perversion  of  facts,  suspi 
cions,  jealousies,  and  accusations  of  the  whole  government,"  then 
I  say,  Mr.  Jefferson  thought  himself  called  on  to  raise  his  head 
from  the  pillow  of  philosophical  tranquillity,  and  secretly  to 
reprobate  this  part  of  the  message  to  the  leading  member  of 
Congress  from  the  President's  own  state,  and  to  the  head  of  the 
opposition  in  that  body,  as  a  daring  outrage  on  the  liberty  of 
speech  and  of  the  press,  and  the  gross  effusion  of  a  rnonarchial 
spirit.  Was  this  consistent  with  friendship,  or  honour,  or  patriot 
ism,  or  justice,  or  truth  ?  If  he  thought  the  President  had  com 
mitted  an  error,  and  chose  to  make  it  the  subject  of  observation, 
he  should  as  a  friend  have  addressed  his  remarks  at  once  to  him ; 
and  if  he  apprehended  that  his  measures  were  likely  to  produce 
mischief  to  the  nation,  unless  instantly  counteracted,  as  a  good 
citizen  and  an  honest  man  he  should  have  appealed  openly  to 
the  people. 

The  clubs,  to  preserve  the  influence  and  favour  of  which,  he 
was  thus  sacrificing  his  honour  as  a  friend,  and  his  duty  as  a 
citizen,  in  the  answer  of  the  Senate  to  the  President's  speech, 
which  as  we  have  seen  is  the  subject  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  mingled 
censure  and  ridicule,  are  noticed  in  the  following  terms — "  Our 
anxiety,  arising  from  the  licentious  and  open  resistance  to  the 
laws  in  the  Western  counties  of  Penns}7lvania,  has  been  increas 
ed  by  the  proceedings  of  certain  self-created  societies  relative  to 
the  laws  and  administration  of  the  government ;  proceedings  in 
our  apprehension,  founded  in  political  error,  calculated,  if  not  in 
tended,  to  disorganise  our  government,  and  which,  by  inspiring 
delusive  hopes  of  support,  have  been  instrumental  in  misleading 
our  citizens  in  the  scene  of  insurrection."  A  motion  to  the 
same  effect  was  carried  against  the  strenuous  opposition  of  Mr. 
Madison,  by  47  to  45  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  though 
through  his  exertions  the  application  of  its  censure  was  subse 
quently  restrained  to  associations  within  the  insurgent  districts, 
by  the  casting  vote  of  the  speaker. 

Although  thus  shielded  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  the 
democratic  societies  could  not  withstand  the  weight  Gen.  Wash 
ington's  disapprobation,  supported  as  it  was  by  the  concurring 
reprehension  of  the  legislative  bodies.  They  languished  under 
public  disesteem,  and  struggled  against  popular  execration,  until 
the  summer  of  1796,  when  the  overthrow  of  their  prototypes  in 
France  and  the  downfall  of  Robespierre,  put  an  end  to  their 


30 

mischievous  existence.  Marshall,  in  relating  the  circumstances 
of  their  dissolution,  observes,  "  not  more  certain  is  it  that  the 
boldest  streams  must  disappear,  if  the  fountains  which  fed  them 
lie  emptied,  than  was  the  dissolution  of  the  Democratic  Societies 
of  America,  when  the  Jacobin  Clubs  were  denounced  by 
France."* 

As  Mr.  Jefferson  proceeds  to  contrast  these  societies  very 
favourably  with  that  of  the  Cincinnati,  which  he  reproaches  with 
"  carving  out  for  itself  hereditary  distinctions,  lowering  over  our 
Constitution  eternally,  meeting  together  in  all  parts  of  the  Union 
periodically  with  closed  doors,  accumulating  a  capital  in  their 
separate  treasury,  corresponding  secretly  raid  regularly ;  and  of 
which  society  "  he  adds,  "  the  very  persons  denouncing  the  demo 
crats,  are  themselves  the  fathers,  founders,  and  high  officers — 
it  will  serve  to  show  the  sincerity  and  justice  of  the  sentiments 
he  was  thus  instilling  through  Mr.  Madison  into  the  public  mind, 
if  we  refer  to  the  account  he  gave  of  this  same  society  of  Cincin 
nati  in  the  year  1786  to  the  author  of  an  article  on  political  and 
diplomatic  economy  in  a  French  Encyclopedia.! 

"  Having  been  in  America,  during  the  period  in  which  this 
institution  was  formed,  and  being  then  in  a  situation  which  gave 
me  opportunities  of  seeing  it,  in  all  its  stages,  I  may  venture  to 
giveM.  deMeusnier  materials  for  a  succinct  history  of  its  origin 
and  establishment.  I  should  write  its  history  in  the  following 
form. 

"When,  on  the  close  of  that  war,  which  established  the  inde 
pendence  of  America,  its  army  was  about  to  be  disbanded,  the 
officers,  who,  during  the  course  of  it,  had  gone  through  the  most 
trying  scenes  together,  who,  by  mutual  aids  and  good  offices,  had 
become  dear  to  one  another,  felt  with  great  apprehension  of  mind 
the  approach  of  that  moment,  which  was  to  separate  them,  never 
perhaps  to  meet  again.  They  were  from  different  states,  and  from 
distant  parts  of  the  same  state.  Hazard  alone  could  therefore, 
give  them  but  rare  and  partial  occasions  of  seeing  each  other. 
They  were,  of  course,  to  abandon  altogether,  the  hope  of  ever 
meeting  again,  or  to  devise  some  occasion  which  might  bring 
them  together.  And  why  not  come  together  on  purpose  at  stated 
times  ?  Would  not  the  trouble  of  such  a  journey  be  greatly  over 
paid,  by  the  pleasure  of  seeing  each  other  again,  by  the  sweetest 
of  all  consolations,  the  talking  over  the  scenes  of  difficulty  and 
endearment  they  had  gone  through  ?  This,  too,  would  enable 
them  to  know,  who  of  them  should  succeed  in  the  world,  who 
should  be  unsuccessful,  and  to  open  the  purses  of  all  to  every 

*  Vol.  5.  p.  602.  *  Vol.  1,  p.  416,  et  eeq. 


31 

labouring  brother.  This  idea  was  too  soothing,  not  to  be  cherish 
ed  in  conversation.  It  was  improved  into  that  of  a  regular 
association,  with  an  organized  administration,  with  periodical 
meetings,  general  and  particular,  fixed  contributions  for  those  who 
should  be  in  distress,  and  a  badge,  by  which,  not  only  those  who 
had  not  had  occasion  to  become  personally  known,  should  be  able 
to  recognise  one  another,  but  which  should  be  worn  by  their 
descendants,  to  perpetuate  among  them  the  friendship  which  had 
bound  their  ancestors  together. 

"  Gen.  Washington  was,  at  that  moment,  oppressed  with  the 
operation  of  disbanding  an  army  which  was  not  paid,  and  the 
difficulty  of  this  operation  was  increased,  by  some  two  or  three 
states  having  expressed  sentiments,  which  did  not  indicate  a  suf 
ficient  attention  to  their  payment.  He  was  sometimes  present 
when  his  officers  were  fashioning  in  their  conversations,  their 
newly  proposed  society.  He  saw  the  innocence  of  its  origin,  and 
foresaw  no  effects  less  innocent.  He  was  at  that  time  writing 
his  valedictory  letter  to  the  States,  which  has  been  so  deservedly 
applauded  by  the  world.  Far  from  thinking  it  a  moment  to 
multiply  the  causes  of  irritation,  by  thwarting  a  proposition  which 
had  absolutely  no  other  basis  but  that  of  benevolence  and  friend 
ship,  he  was  rather  satisfied  to  find  himself  aided  in  his  difficulties 
by  this  new  incident,  which  occupied,  and  at  the  same  time, 
soothed,  the  minds  of  his  officers.  He  thought  too,  that  this 
institution  would  be  one  instrument  the  more,  for  strengthening 
the  federal  bond,  and  for  promoting  federal  ideas.  The  institu 
tion  was  formed.  They  incorporated  into  it  the  officers  of  the 
French  army  and  navy,  by  whose  sides  ^hey  had  fought,  and 
with  whose  aid  the}7  had  finally  prevailed." 

After  stating  that  Gen.  Washington  accepted  the  office  of 
President  of  the  society,  (which  he  held  until  his  death)  and  men 
tioning  the  opposition  which  its  supposed  tendency  to  divide  the 
community  into  distinct  orders,  soon  excited,  he  proceeds,  (p.  418.) 

"  The  uneasiness  excited  by  this  institution,  had  very  early 
caught  the  notice  of  Gen.  Washington.  Still  recollecting  all 
the  purity  of  the  motives  which  gave  it  birth,  be  became  sensible 
that  it  might  produce  political  evils,  which  the  warmth  of  those 
motives  had  masked.  Add  to  this,  that  it  was  disapproved  by 
the  mass  of  citizens  of  the  union.  This  alone,  was  reason  strong- 
enough  in  a  country,  where  the  will  of  the  majority  is  the  law, 
and  ought  to  be  the  law.  He  saw  that  the  objects  of  the  institu 
tion  were  too  light,  to  be  opposed  to  considerations  as  serious  as 
these ;  and  that  it  was  become  necessary  to  annihilate  it  absolutely. 
On  this,  therefore,  he  was  decided.  The  first  annual  meeting 


32 

* 

at  Philadelphia,  was  now  at  hand  ;  lie  went  to  that,  determined 
to  exert  all  his  influence  for  its  suppression.  He  proposed  it  to 
his  fellow  officers,  and  urged  it  with  all  his  powers.  It  met  an 
opposition  which  was  observed  to  cloud  his  face- with  an  anxiety, 
that  the  most  distressful  scenes  of  the  war  had  scarcely  ever  pro 
duced.  It  was  canvassed  for  several  days,  and  at  length  it  vvaa 
no  more  a  doubt  what  would  be  its  ultimate  fate.  The  order 
was  on  the  point  of  receiving  its  annihilation,  by  the  vote  of  a 
great  majority  of  its  members.  In  this  moment,  their  envoy 
arrived  from  France,  charged  with  letters  from  the  French  officers, 
accepting  with  cordiality  the  proposed  badges  of  union,  with 
solicitations  from  others,  to  be  received  into  the  order,  and  with 
notice  that  their  respectable  sovereign  had  been  pleased  to  recog 
nise  it,  and  to  permit  his  officers  to  wear  its  badges.  The  pros 
pect  was  now  changed,  The  question  assumed  a  new  form. 
After  the  offer  made  by  them,  and  accepted  by  their  friends,  in 
what  words  could  they  clothe  a  proposition  to  retract  it,  whicli 
would  not  cover  themselves  with  the  reproaches  of  levity  and 
ingratitude  ?  which  would  not  appear  an  insult  to  those  whom 
they  loved  ?  Federal  principles,  popular  discontent,  were  con 
siderations,  whose  weight  was  known  and  felt  by  themselves. 
But  would  foreigners  know  and  feel  them  equally  ?  would  they 
so  far  acknowledge  their  cogency,  as  to  permit,  without  indigna 
tion,  the  Eagle  and  Ribbon  to  be  torn  from  their  breasts,  by  the 
very  hands  which  had  placed  them  there  ?  The  idea  revolted 
the  whole  society.  They  found  it  necessary  then,  to  preserve  so 
much  of  their  institution  as  might  continue  to  support  this  foreign 
branch,  while  they  sliould  prune  off  every  other,  which  would 
give  offence  to  their  fellow-citizens  ;  thus  sacrificing  on  each 
hand,  to  their  friends,  and  to  their  country. 

The  Society  was  to  retain  its  existence,  its  name,  its  meetings, 
and  its  charitable  funds  ;  but  these  last  were  to  be  deposited  with 
their  respective  legislatures.  The  order  was  to  be  no  longer 
hereditary.  The  Eagle  and  Ribbon  were  indeed  retained,  because 
they  were  worn,  and  they  wished  them  to  be  worn,  by  their 
friends  in  a  country,  where  they  would  not  be  objects  of  offence  ; 
but  themselves  never  wore  them.  They  laid  them  up  in  their 
bureaus,  with  the  medals  of  American  independence,  with  those 
of  the  trophies  they  had  taken,  and  the  battles  they  had  won. 
But  through  all  the  United  States,  no  officer  is  seen  to  offend  the 
public  eye,  with  a  display  of  this  badge.  These  changes  have 
tranquilised  the  American  States.  Their  citizens  feel  too  much 
interest  in  the  reputation  of  their  officers,  and  value  too  much 
whatever  may  serve  to  recall  to  the  memory  of  their  allies,  the 


33 

moments  wherein  they  formed  but  one  people,  not  to  do  justice  to 
the  circumstances  which  prevented  the  total  annihilation  of  the 
order  ;  and  it  would  be  an  extreme  affliction  to  them,  if  the 
domestic  reformation  which  has  been  found  necessary,  if  the  cen 
sures  of  individual  writers,  or  if  any  other  circumstance,  should 
discourage  the  wearing  their  badge  by  their  allies,  or  lesson  its 
reputation."  He  then  adds  that  the  above  is  "  a  short  and  true 
history  of  the  Order  of  the  Cincinnati."* 

From  this  account  then,  we  have  the  grave  authority  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  himself,  for  saying,  that  the  society  of  Cincinnati,  was 
founded  exclusively  on  sentiments  of  "  benevolence  and  friend 
ship,"  was  "  innocent  in  its  origin,"  and  as  far  as  its  members 
could  foresee,  "  no  less  innocent  in  its  effects,"  was  considered 
likely  to  smooth  the  difficulties  of  disbanding  the  army,  and  to 
strengthen  the  tendencies  to  union  among  the  states.  That  as 
soon  as  unforeseen  objections  were  entertained  towards  it  by  their 
fellow-citizens,  "  a  great  majority"  of  its  members,  in  conformity 
with  the  advice  of  Gen.  Washington,  and  in  patriotic  deference 
to  the  sovereignty  of  the  public  will,  resolved  on  its  immediate 
annihilation.  That  this  radical  measure  was  prevented  solely 
by  an  accidental  circumstance,  which  opposed  to  it  their  respect, 
gratitude,  and  attachment  for  the  French  officers,  who  in  com 
pliance  with  their  invitation,  and  by  permission  of  their  own 
government  had  become  members  of  it.  That  influenced  by  a 
desire  to  comply  with  the  opinions  of  their  countrymen,  and  at 
the  same  time;,  to  avoid  disrespect  to  their  foreign  friends,  they 
pruned  off  the  hereditary  quality,  and  other  objectionable  parts  of 
their  institution,  and  preserved  only  so  much  as  might  support 
the  foreign  branch.  That  this  reformation  satisfied  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  who  felt  a  pride  in  the  estimation  in  which 
the  society  was  held  abroad,  and  would  view,  with  "  extreme 
affliction,"  any  evidence  of  a  decline  in  that  flattering  sentiment. 

This  he  says,  is  "  the  true  history,"  of  the  society.  It  does 
not  look  like  " carving  out  for  itself  hereditary  distinctions" 

*  Soon  after  Meusnier's  article  on  the  Cincinnati  was  published,  Mr. 
Jefferson  enclosed  it  to  Gen.  Washington,  (Vol.  2,  p.  63.)  observing,  "In  a 
work  which  is  sure  of  going  down  to  the  latest  posterity,  I  thought  it  mate 
rial  to  set  facts  to  rights,  as  much  as  possible."  Then,  after  stating  that  his 
apprehensions  of  possible  ill  consequences  from  the  establishment  of  such  an 
institution,  had  been  rather  increased  than  diminished  by  observations  he  had 
made  in  Europe;  all  of  which  apprehensions  the  experience  of  a  very  few 
years  proved  to  be  utterly  groundless,  he  adds,  "  When  the  society  them 
selves  shall  weigh  the  possibility  of  evil,  against  the  impossibility  of  any  good 
to  proceed  from  this  institution,  I  cannot  help  hoping  they  will  eradicate  it, 
I  know  they  wish  the  permanence  of  our  Gove.rnnif.nts,  o.smueh  as  any  individual 
composing  them." 

5 


34 

or  "  lowering'  over  the  constitution  eternally"  And  as  to 
"  accumulating  a  capital  in  their  separate  treasury,"  he  declares 
the  object  of  that  design  (for  no  capital  of  any  consequence 
ever  was  accumulated,  the  great  majority  of  the  officers  having 
lived  and  died  poor)  was  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  their  unfor 
tunate  associates ;  and  that  the  funds,  should  any  be  collected, 
were  to  be  placed  for  that  purpose  in  the  treasuries  of  the  several 
states. 

As  he  affirms  that  his  account  to  M.  de  Meusnier  was  a  true 
history,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  one  here  given  to 
Mr.  Madison,  could  not  be  any  thing  but  a  libel,  upon  men 
whose  patriotism,  benevolence,  friendship,  and  modesty,  through 
out  all  its  stages,  he  himself  had  solemnly  attested.  That  he 
presented  the  genuine  account  to  his  French  friend,  and  put  the 
base  one  on  Mr.  Madison,  you  may  be  inclined  to  attribute  to 
the  predominance  of  familiarity  over  respect,  in  their  intimacy.  But 
the  fact  is,  that  the  truth  was  to  be  locked  up  in  a  foreign  library,  or 
to  reach  few  American  readers,  and  was  intended  to  minister  to  no 
ulterior  purpose.  Whereas,  the  article  fabricated  for  Mr.  Madison, 
was  for  home  consumption  ;  was  a  thread  in  that  web  of  misre 
presentation  which  he  was  weaving  around  the  character  of  Gen. 
Washington — a  web  of  torments — which,  if  we  believe  him/* 

*  The  pain  which  these  and  similar  slanders  inflicted  on  the  feelings  of  Gen, 
Washington,  and  the  remorseless  philosophy  with  which  it  was  contemplated 
by  Mr.  Jefferson,  are  thus  described  by  the  latter.  "  The  President  was  much 
inflamed  ;  got  into  one  of  those  passions  when  he  cannot  command  himself; 
ran  on  much  on  the  personal  abuse  which  had  been  bestowed  on  him ;  defied 
any  man  on  earth  to  produce  one  single  act  of  his  since  he  had  been  in  tho 
government,  which  was  not  done  on  the  purest  motives  ;  that  he  had  never 
repented  but  once  the  having  slipped  the  moment  of  resigning  his  office,  and 
that  was  every  moment  since  ;  that  by  God  he  had  rather  be  in  his  grave  than 
in  his  present  situation ;  that  he  had  rather  be  on  his  farm  than  to  be  made  Em 
peror  of  the  world;  and  yet  that  they  were  charging  him  with  wanting  to  be  a 
king.  That  that  rascal  Freneau  sent  him  three  of  his  papers  every  day,  as  if 
he  thought  he  would  become  the  distributor  of  his  papers  ;  that  he  could 
see  in  this  nothing  but  an  impudent  design  to  insult  him ;  he  ended  in  this 
high  tone."  (Vol.  4.  p.  491.)  Again,  "  He  adverted  to  a  piece  in  Freneau's 
paper ;  he  said  he  despised  these  attacks  on  him  personally  " — :"  He  was 
evidently  sore  and  warm,  and  I  took  his  intention  to  be,  that  I  should  inter 
pose  in  some  way  with  Freneau,  perhaps  withdraw  his  appointment  as  trans 
lating  clerk  to  my  office.  But  I  will  not  do  it.  His  paper  has  saved  the 
constitution."  (P.  485.) 

Not  to  speak  of  the  indecency  of  the  Secretary  of  State's  thus  patronising 
an  editor  who  was  abusing  and  insulting  the  President  daily  to  his  face — de 
voting  the  labour  he  owed  the  government  to  the  purpose  of  obstructing 
and  reviling  it — I  will  only  bring  to  your  notice  the  rule  Mr.  Jefferson  him 
self  laid  down  when  he  became  President,  with  regard  to  disaffected  employes 
— (Vol.  4.  p.  99.)  "  I  have  only  requested  they  would  be  quiet,  and  they 
should  be  safe ;  that  if  their  conscience  urges  them  to  take  an  active  and 


35 

were  not  lees  fierce  and  mighty,  than  those  which  writhe  and 
swell  the  figure  of  Canova's  Hercules — when  the  distracted 
demigod —  V 


" felt  the  envenom'd  robe,  and  tore, 

"  Through  pain,  up  by  the  roots  Thessalian  Pines  ; 
"  And  Lichas  from  the  top  of  CEta  threw 
"  Into  the  fuboic  sea." 

These  torments  were  cruelly  inflicted,  as  they  were  calmly 
witnessed,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  his  own  claims  before  the 
people  with  a  better  chance  of  success. 

As  this  hatred  and  suspicion  of  the  Cincinnati  society  were 
evidently  spurious  and  unfounded,  you  will  be  the  less  surprised 
to  learn,  that  the  zeal  expressed  in  the  same  letter,  in  behalf  of 
the  democratic  societies,  "  the  friends  of  popular  rights,"  was  not 
the  fruit  of  principle  but  of  interest.  At  page  345,  of  his  fourth 
volume,  is  a  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson  of  the  6th  of  March,  1822,  in 
which  he  declines  an  invitation  to  become  a  member  of  a  society 
whose  object  was  "to  promote  civilization  and  improvement  among 
the  Indians."  In  this  letter  he  observes — "  I  shall  not  undertake 
to  draw  a  line  of  demarcation  between  private  associations  of 
laudable  views  and  unimposing  numbers,  and  those  whose  mag 
nitude  may  rivalise  and  jeopardise  the  march  of  regular  govern 
ment.  Yet  such  a  line  does  exist.  I  have  seen  the  days — they 
were  those  which  preceded  the  Revolution  ;  when  even  this  last 
and  perilous  engine  became  necessary  :  but  they  were  days 
which  no  man  would  wish  to  a  second  time."  He  proceeds  to 
deprecate  such  associations  upon  the  ground  of  their  being  bad 
and  prolific  examples,  of  being  "  wheels  within  a  wheel,"  and 
by  reference  to  the  excesses  perpetrated  by  the  Jacobin  Clubs  of 
France.  *£ 

It  would  appear  therefore  that  while  Mr.  Jefferson  felt  called  on 
"  as  a  good  citizen"  to  discourage  a  society  instituted  for  the  pur 
pose  of  "promoting  civilization  and  improvement  among  the 
Indians,"  as  setting  a  dangerous  example,  and  tending  "  to  rival- . 
ise  and  jeopardise  the  march  of  regular  government — "  he  pro 
nounced  Gen.  Washington  guilty  of  "  an  inexcusable  aggression 
on  popular  rights,"  when  he  discountenanced  in  terms  of  anxi 
ous  patriotism  and  considerate  dignity,  the  proceedings  of  orga- 

zealous  part  in  opposition,  it  ought  also  to  urge  them  to  retire  from  a  post 
which  they  could  not  conscientiously  conduct  with  fidelity  to  the  trust  repos 
ed  in  them  ;  and  on  failure  to  retire  I  have  removed  them."  The  officer  who 
abused  and  insulted  President  Washington,  was  to  be  patronised  and  en 
couraged,  as  "  the  saviour  of  the  constitution  " — he  who  should  oppose  Presi 
dent  Jefferson,  to  be  removed  a*  "•  unfaithful  to  his  trust !" 


36         , 

nized  political  clubs,  which  had  nearly  involved  us  in  foreign  war, 
in  opposition  to  "  the  march  of  regular  government,"  and  had,  as 
he  and  his  whole  Cabinet  believed,  and  as  a  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  legislature  declared,  fomented  a  formidable  do 
mestic  insurrection. 

Since,  of  his  contradictory  opinions  on  this  subject,  those  ex 
pressed  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Morse,  are  said  to  be  conscientious, 
the  natural  and  melancholy  conclusion  is,  that  the  false  and 
scandalous  ones  again  fall  to  the  share  of  Mr.  Madison. 

But  to  go  on  with  his  letter  of  December,  1794.  After  at 
tempting  to  separate  these  societies  from  their  proceedings,  affect 
ing  "  to  put  out  of  sight  the  persons  "  whose  confessed  misde 
meanours  he  calls  misbehaviour,  he  proceeds  to  affirm  that 
the  President's  allusion  to  them  was  generally  and  justly  consi 
dered  "  an  abstract  attempt  on  the  natural  and  constitutional  rights 
of  the  people." 

The  injustice  of  these  expressions  is  much  more  conspicuous 
than  their  meaning.  What  is  "an  abstract  attempt,"  on  a  prac 
tical  subject — or  on  any  subject  ?  But  a  more  important  question 
is,  what  sense  of  equity  was  Mr.  Jefferson  guided  by,  when  he 
pronounced  the  societies  innocent,  in  spite  of  practical  guilt,  and 
Gen.  Washington  guilty,  in  spite  of  practical  innocence?  Is 
this  judging  the  tree  by  its  fruits,  or  men  by  their  works  ? 

It  may  be  here  observed,  that  while  in  his  letters  to  Gen. 
Washington  of  May  the  14th  and  September  the  7th,  1794,  and 
that  of  June  the  19th,  1796,  the  last  it  appears  he  ever  wrote 
him,  he  was  humbugging  that  confiding  friend,  that  kind 
benefactor,  that  illustrious  patriot,  with  professions  of  undimin 
ished  attachment  for  him,  unabated  love  for  retirement  and  re 
pugnance  to  poli^T^s — with  such  expressions  as  "  I  cherish  tran 
quillity  too  much,  to  suffer  political  things  to  enter  my  mind  at  all," 
"  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  retain  the  esteem  and  approbation 
of  the  President,"  "  I  put  away  this  disgusting  dish  of  old  frag- 
.  ments,  and  talk  to  you  about  my  peas  and  clover,"  with  "the  Alba 
ny  pe»  " — "  the  hog  pea  " — "  the  true  winter  vetch" — "  the  Caro 
lina  drill"— and  "the  Scotch  threshing  machine,"  he  was  collecting 
from  "  an  extensive  circle  of  observation  and  information,"  and 
transmitting  to  the  head  of  the  opposition  in  Congress,  the  most 
unjust  and  poisonous  opinions  that  could  possibly  be  fabricated 
of  the  President's  character  and  conduct.  This  would  of  itself 
have  furnished  cause  sufficient  for  Gen.  Lee,  or  any  other  sincere 
friend  of  the  President,  to  put  him  on  his  guard,  to  open  his 
eyes  to  the  ambush  from  which  this  pretended  friend  and  philo 
sopher  was  secretly  wounding  him — where  too  his  great  and 


37 

patriotic  soul  felt  injury  the  most  acutely — in  the  love  and  confi 
dence  of  his  country. 

The  next  subject  of  crimination  against  Gen.  Washington, 
grows  out  of  that  which  has  been  considered  the  second  in  im 
portance  and  advantage  among  the  measures  of  his  administra 
tion,  viz.,  the  suppression  of  the  western  insurrection.  As  by  the 
first,  his  proclamation  of  neutrality,  he  gave  a  just  and  indepen 
dent  direction  to  our  character  as  a  nation,  and  averted  the 
calamities  of  foreign  war,  so  by  his  repression  of  this  extravagant 
rebellion,  he  confirmed  the  power  of  our  institutions  at  home,  and 
saved  us  from  the  horrors  of  civil  bloodshed.  To  form  a  correct 
estimate  of  this  censure,  it  will  be  necessary  to  attend  to  a  fair 
and  unprejudiced  account  of  that  event  in  our  history  which  is 
taken  from  Marshall's  life  of  Washington,*  and  is  confirmed  in 
every  particular  by  Ramsay  in  his  history  of  the  United  States.t 

From  these  authorities  it  appears,  that  when  in  the  year  1791 
it  was  found  that  the  revenue  arising  from  duties  which  had  been 
laid  on  imported  articles,  though  carried  to  the  highest  productive 
limit,  would  not  be  sufficient  to  discharge  the  current  expenses  of 
the  government,  and  maintain  the  public  credit,  it  was  proposed 
by  the  executive  that  a  duty  should  be  laid  on  spirits  distilled 
within  the  United  States.  This  proposition  was  resisted  by  the 
opposition  in  Congress,  as  an  excise  law,  odious  in  name  and  op 
pressive  in  character — and  as  a  substitute  for  it,  that  party  recom 
mended  a  stamp  act.  The  bill,  however,  for  laying  a  duty  on 
domestic  spirits  passed  into  a  law  by  a  vote  of  35  to  21,  in  the 
house  of  Representatives,  and  by  a  more  decided  majority  in  the 
Senate. 

The  opposition  it  encountered  in  Congress  was  soon  distributed 
through  various  parts  of  the  Union,  and  took  root  with  peculiar 
strength  and  tenacity  in  the  tramontane  counties  of  Pennsylvania ; 
a  district,  the  inhabitants  of  which  had  manifested  a  general  dis 
like  to  the  constitution  under  the  authority  of  which  the  obnoxious 
duty  was  imposed.  It  advanced  through  all  the  stages  of  sedi 
tious  violence — from  loud  discontent  to  frequent  acts  of  treason, 
and  from  these  to  open  and  general  insurrection.  Marshall  thus 
describes  these  outrages  and  the  conduct  of  the  govenment  on 
this  critical  occasion.  • 

"  On  the  part  of  the  Executive,  this  open  defiance  of  the  laws, 
and  of  the  authority  of  the  government,  was  believed  imperiously 
to. require  that  the  strength  and  efficacy  of  those  laws  should  be 
tried.  Against  the  perpetrators  of  some  of  the  outrages  which 

*  Vol.  5.  pp.  286  to  93,  and  575  to  90.  t  Vol.  3.  pp.  74,  5,  6,  7,  8. 


38 

had  been  committed,  bills  of  indictment  had  been  found  in  the 
con  ds  of  the  United  States,  upon  which  process  was  directed  to 
issue  ;  and  at  the  same  time  process  was  also  issued  against  a 
great  number  of  noncomplying  distillers.  Charging  himself  with 
the  service  of  these  processes,  the  marshal  repaired  in  person  to 
the  countr3T  which  was  the  scene  of  these  disorders.  On  the  15th 
of  July  (1794)  while  employed  in  the  execution  of  his  duty,  he 
was  beset  on  the  road  by  a  body  of  armed  men,  who  fired  on  him, 
but  fortunately  did  him  no  personal  injury.  At  day  break  the 
ensuing  morning,  a  party  attacked  the  house  of  Gen.  Nevil,  the 
inspector;  but  he  defended  himself  resolutely,  and  obliged  the 
assailants  to  retreat.  Knowing  well  that  this  attack  had  been 
preconcerted,  and  consequently  apprehending  that  it  would  be  re 
peated,  he  applied  to  the  militia  officers  and  magistrates  of  the 
county,  for  protection.  The  answer  was,  that  owing  to  the  too 
general  combination  of  the  people  to  oppose  the  revenue  system, 
the  laws  could  not  be  executed  so  as  to  afford  him  protection  : 
that  should  the  posse  comitatus  be  ordered  out  to  support  the 
civil  authority,  few  could  be  got  that  were  not  of  the  party  of 
rioters.  On  the  succeeding  day,  the  insurgents  re-assembled  to 
the  number  of  about  500,  to  renew  their  attack  on  the  house  of 
the  inspector.  On  finding  that  no  protection  could  be  afforded, 
by  the  civil  authority,  he  had  applied  to  the  commanding  officer  at 
Port  Pitt,  and  had  obtained  a  detachment  of  eleven  men  from 
that  garrison,  who  were  joined  by  Major  Kirkpatrick.  Successful 
resistance  to  so  great  a  force  being  obviously  impracticable,  a  par 
ley  took  pla/^e,  at  which  the  assailants,  after  requiring  that  the 
inspector  and  all  his  papers*  should  be  delivered  up,  demanded 
that  the  party  in  the  house  should  march  out  and  ground  their 
arms.  This  being  refused  the  parley  terminated  and  the  assault 
commenced.  The  action  lasted  until  the  asssailants  set  fire  to 
several  adjacent  buildings,  the  heat  from  which  was  so  intense, 
that  the  house  could  be  no  longer  occupied.  From  this  cause, 
and  from  the  apprehension  that  the  fire  would  soon  be  communi 
cated  to  the  main  building,  Major  Kirkpatrick  and  his  party  sur 
rendered  themselves.  The  marshal  and  Col.  Pressly  Nevil  were 
seized  on  their  way  to  Gen.  Nevil's  house,  and  detained  until  two 
the  next  morning.  The  marshall,  especially,  was  treated  with 
extreme  rudeness.  His  life  was  frequently  threatened,  and  was 
probably  saved  by  the  interposition  of  some  leading  characters 
who  possessed  more  humanity,  or  more  prudence  than  those  with 


*  "  The  inspector  had  left  the  house  and  secreted  himself— the  demand  of 
the  papers  was  acceded  to." — Note  by  Marshall. 


39 

whom  they  were  associated.     He  could  only  obtain  his  safety  or 
liberty  by  entering  into  a  solemn  engagement,  which  was  gua 
rantied  by  Col.  Nevil,  to  serve  no  more  process  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains.     The  marshal  and  inspector  having 
both  retired  to  Pittsburg,  the  insurgents  deputed  two  of  their  body, 
one  of  whom  was  a  justice  of  the  peace,  to  demand  that  the 
former  should  surrender  all  his  process,  and  that  the  latter  should 
resign  his  office :    threatening  in  case  of  refusal  to  attack  the 
place,  and  seize  their  persons.     These  demands  were  not  acced 
ed  to  ;  but  Pittsburg  affording  no  security,  these  officers  escaped 
from  the  dangers  which  threatened  them,  by  descending  the 
Ohio,  after  which,  they  found  their  way  by  a  circuitous  route  to 
the  seat  of  government.     The  perpetrators  of  these  treasonable 
practices  would,  of  course,  be  desirous  to  ascertain  their  strength , 
and  to  discover  any  latent  enemies  who  might  remain  unsus 
pected  in  the  bosom  of  the  disaffected  country.     To  obtain  this 
information,  the  mail  from  Pittsburg  to  Philadelphia  was  stopped 
by  armed  men,  who  cut  it  open,  and  took  out  the  letters  it  con 
tained.     In  some  of  these  letters,  a  direct  disapprobation  of  the 
violent  measures  which  had  been  adopted  was  openly  avowed  ; 
and  in  others  expressions  were  used  which  indicated  unfriendly 
dispositions  towards  them.     Upon  acquiring  this  intelligence,  de 
legates  were  deputed  from  the  town  of  Washington  to  Pittsburg 
where  the  writers  of  the  offensive  letters  resided,  to  demand  the 
banishment  of  the  offenders.     A  prompt  obedience  to  this  demand 
was  unavoidable,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Pittsburg,  who  were  con 
vened  on  the  occasion,  engaged  to  attend  a  general  meeting  of 
•  the  people,  who  were  to  assemble  the  next  day  at  Braddock's 
field,  in  order  to  carry  into  effect  such  further  measures  as  might 
be  deemed  advisable,  with  respect  to  the  excise  and  its  advocates. 
They  also  determined  to  elect  delegates  to  a  convention  which 
was  to  meet  on  the  14th  of  August,  at  Parkinson's  ferry.     The 
avowed  motives  to  these  outrages  were  to  compel  the  resignation 
of  all  officers  engaged  in  the  collection  of  the  duties  ori  distilled 
spirits  ;  to  withstand  by  force  of  arms  the  authority  of  the  United 
States,  and  thereby  to  extort  a  repeal  of  the  law  imposing  those 
duties,  and  an  alteration  in  the  conduct  of  government.     Affi 
davits  attesting  this  serious  state  of  things  were  laid  before  the 
Executive.     The  opposition  had  now  progressed  to  a  point  which 
seemed  to  forbid  the  continuance  of  a  temporising  system.     The 
efforts  at  conciliation,  which,  for  more  than  three  years  the  go 
vernment  had  persisted  to  make,  and  the  alterations  repeatedly 
introduced  into  the  act,  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  it  less  excep 
tionable,  instead  of  diminishing  the  arrogance  of  those  who 


40 

opposed  their  will  to  the  sense  of  the  nation,  had  drawn  forth 
sentiments  indicative  of  designs  much  deeper  than  the  evasion  of 
a  single  act.  The  execution  of  the  laws  had  at  length  been  re 
sisted  by  open  force,  and  a  determination  to  persevere  in  these 
measures  was  unequivocally  manifested.  To  the  government 
was  presented  the  alternative  of  subduing,  or  of  submitting  to,  this 
resistance.  The  act  of  Congress  which  provided  for  calling  forth 
the  militia  "  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union,  suppress  insurrec 
tion,  and  repel  invasions,"  required  as  a  pre-requisite  to  the  exercise 
of  this  power,  "  that  an  associate  justice,  or  the  judge  of  the  dis 
trict,  should  certify  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States  were  op 
posed,  or  their  execution  obstructed,  by  combinations  too  powerful 
to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial  proceedings, 
or  by  the  powers  vested  in  the  marshals."  In  the  same  act  it 
was  provided,  "  that  if  the  militia  of  the  State  where  such  com 
binations  may  happen,  shall  refuse,  or  be  insufficient  to  suppress 
the  same,  the  President  may  employ  the  militia  of  other  states." 
By  the  unanimous  advice 'of  the  cabinet,  the  evidence  which  had 
been  transmitted  to  the  President  was  laid  before  one  of  the 
associate  justices,  who  gave  the  certificate,  which  enabled  the 
chief  magistrate  to  employ  the  militia  in  aid  of  the  civil  power." 

After  relating  the  deliberations  of  the  Cabinet  on  the  amount 
of  force  and  mode  of  proceeding,  advisable  on  the  occasion,  stating 
that  Gen.  Mifflin,  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  when  consulted, 
was  of  opinion  that  the  militia  of  his  state,  would  not  be  com 
petent  to  the  object  of  putting  down  the  insurgents  ;  that  the 
President  issued  one  proclamation,  recapitulating  the  steps  that 
had  been  taken  by  the  insurgents  in  violation  of  the  law,  and  by 
the  government  in  support  of  it ;  and  requiring  the  insurgents  to 
"  disperse  and  retire  peaceably  to  their  homes,  on  or  before  the 
first  of  September ;"  that  a  requisition  was  made  on  the  governors 
of  New- Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  for  quotas 
of  militia  to  compose  an  army  of  15,000  men,  in  the  hope  that 
the  greatness  of  the  force  would  prevent  bloodshed  ;  that  a  deputa 
tion  consisting  of  Judge  Yates  of  the  superior  court,  Mr.  Ross,  a 
senator  from  Pennsylvania  and  a  gentleman  of  great  popularity 
in  the  disaffected  country,  and  the  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States,  also  a  citizen  of  Pennsylvania,  were  despatched 
by  Gen.  Washington  to  offer  to  the  insurgents  a  general  amnesty 
upon  the  sole  condition  of  future  submission  to  the  laws ;  and 
that  at  the  request  of  the  executive,  and  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
success  to  this  last  effort,  to  avoid  the  employment  of  military 
force ;  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania  appointed  commissioners  to 
act  in  concert  with  these  deputies  ;  that  this  last  effort  at  concilia 


41 

tion  was  unavailing ;  that  the  insurgents  proceeded  in  their  out 
rageous  spirit,  and  in  extending  the  circle  of  resistance  into  the 
neighbouring  states  of  Maryland  and  Virginia, — that  the  President 
issued  a  second  proclamation  on  the  25th  September,  describing 
to  the  public,  the  "  obstinate  and  perverse  spirit,"  in  which  the 
lenient  propositions  of  the  government  had  been  received,  and 
declaring  his  lixed  determination  to  do  his  duty,  to  see  the  laws 
faithfully  executed,  and  to  bring  the  refractory  to  obedience  ;  that 
the  command  of  the  expedition  was  conferred  on  Governor  Lee 
of  Virginia,  and  that  the  governors  of  Pennsylvania,  and  New- 
Jersey  commanded  under  him  the  militia  of  their  respective  states, 
and  that  the  President  in  person  visited  the  two  divisions  of  the 
army,  at  Cumberland  and  Bedford.  Marshall  thus  proceeds. — 
"  From  Cumberland  and  Bedford  the  army  marched  in  two 
divisions  into  the  country  of  the  insurgents.  As  had  been  fore 
seen,  the  greatness  of  the  force  prevented  the  effusion  of  blood. 
The  disaffected  did  not  assemble  in  arms.  Several  of  the  leaders 
who  had  refused  to  give  assurances  of  future  submission  to  the 
Jaws,  were  seized,  and  some  of  them  detained  for  legal  prosecu 
tion.  A  Mr.  Bradford,  who,  in  the  latter  stages  of  the  insurrec 
tion,  had  manifested  peculiar  violence,  and  had  openly  advocated 
an  appeal  to  arms,  made  his  escape  into  the  territories  of  Spain. 
But  although  no  direct  and  open  opposition  was  made,  the  spirit 
of  insurrection  was  by  no  means  subdued.  A  sour  and  malig 
nant  temper  displayed  itself,  which  indicated  but  too  plainly  that 
the  disposition  to  resist,  had  only  sunk  under  the  presence  of  the 
great  military  force  brought  into  the  country,  but  would  rise  again, 
should  that  force  be  suddenly  removed.  It  was  therefore  thought 
advisable  to  station  for  the  winter,  a  detachment,  to  be  command 
ed  by  Major  Gen.  Morgan,  in  the  centre  of  the  disaffected  country. 
Thus  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood,*  did  the  prudent  vigour 
of  the  Executive,  terminate  an  insurrection  which,  at  one  time, 
threatened  to  shake  the  government  of  the  United  States  to  its 
foundation." 

Here  we  see  from  two  historians,  whose  narrations  concur, 
and  have  never  been  contested,  that  what  Mr.  Jefferson  chose  to 
call  "  transactions  against  the  excise  law  ;"  and  to  represent  as 
having  been  "  nothing  more  than  riotous,"  was  really  an  avowed 
and  armed  opposition  to  the  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial 
authority  of  the  United  States.  That  it  Had  existed  for  more 
than  three  years,  and  had  been  perseveied  in,  in  spite  of  the 

*  "  Two  persons  who  were  convicted  of  treason,  received  pardon." 

vYote  by  Marshall. 

r> 


42 

tender  consideration  of  the  legislature,  and  the  patriotic  forbear 
ance  of  the  Executive  ;  and  had  advanced  from  an  organized 
disobedience  of  the  law,  to  a  military  attack  upon  its  officers. 
That  one  detachment  of  the  insurgents  had  seized  and  violated 
the  public  mail,  on  its  route  to  the  seat  of  government;  that 
another  had  waylaid  and  shot  at  a  civil  officer  in  the  execution  of 
his  duty ;  that  a  third  had  laid  siege  to  the  house  of  the  In 
spector,  and  forced  a  detachment  of  the  United  States'  troops  to 
surrender  at  discretion  ;  that  from  intimidating  particular  agents 
of  government,  they  had  proceeded  to  expel  from  their  homes  and 
banish  from  their  country,  bodies  of  peaceable,  orderly  citizens ; 
that  they  had  rejected  ail  terms  of  conciliation  and  openly  pro 
claimed  their  determination  to  control  the  national  legislature  by 
military  force. 

It  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Jefferson  could  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  outrages  of  these  deluded  people,  and  of  their  in 
famous  leaders ;  for,  independently  of  their  alarming  notoriety,  they 
took  place  in  the  interval  between  December,  1791,  and  Septem 
ber,  1794,  during  all  but  nine  months  of  which  term  he  was  at 
the  head  of  Gen.  Washington's  cabinet.  Nor  could  he  be  igno 
rant  that  of  this  strong  and  turbulent  district,  thus  obstinate  in 
resistance,  and  determined  on  violence,  the  military  population 
had  been  estimated  at  16,000  men,  and  the  fighting  force  ready 
for  the  field,  at  7,000;  a  force  about  three  times  as  great  as  that 
with  which  a  feeble  but  ardent  adventurer,  gained  the  victory  of 
Preston  Pans  ;  about  twice  the  number  of  the  army  with  which 
he  won  the  action  at  Falkirk,  and  fought  the  desperate  battle  of 
Cullodon  ;  after  having  taken  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  Carlisle,  and 
Manchester  ;  and,  penetrating  from  the  remotest  parts  of  Scot 
land,  to  within  a  hundred  miles  of  London,  had  thrown  an  old 
and  powerful  kingdom  into  consternation.* 

Mr.  Jefferson  must  have  known  likewise,  that  the  governor  of 
Pennsylvania  had  formally  announced  to  the  President,  the  inade 
quacy  of  the  well-affected  militia  of  that  state,  to  subdue  this  revolt ; 
that  the  condition  attached  to  the  Act,  empowering  the  government 
to  call  forth  the  militia  of  the  States  to  quell  insurrections,  had  been 
complied  with,  and  that  it  was  of  a  nature  which,  while  it  proved 
the  existence  of  the  insurrection,  proved  also  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Executive  to  suppress  it.  He  admits  too,  that  "  there  was 
indeed  a  meeting  to  consult  about  a  separation."  Yet  with  all 
these  treasonable  acts  and  designs — this  array  of  force  and  violence 
of  spirit,  in  opposition  to  a  law  which  he  allows  was  constitution- 

*  Smollet,  Book  2,  Chap.  8. 


43 

al,  and  to  a  government  in  the  first  years  of  its  establishment,  he 
has  the  injustice  to  heap  this  ridicule  and  execration  on  the  law 
ful,  moderate,  and  beneficial  conduct  of  his  own  and  his  country's 
friend. 

He  goes  on  to  assert,  that  [although  the  excise  law  was  admit 
ted  by  the  Constitution,  it  was  "  an  infernal  law,"  discovering 
his  disguised  but  real  disrespect  for  that  instrument ;  and  to 
affirm  that  the  culpable  interference  of  the  Executive  with  the 
"  transactions  and  riots  "  in  Western  Pennsylvania  would  lead  to 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  He  then  adds  a  piece  of  informa 
tion,  which  besides  its  striking  conformity  with  truth,  reflects  an 
interesting  light  on  his  own  history.  He  declares  notwithstand 
ing  the  well  known  facts  that  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  insur 
rection  Tiad  submitted,  that  others  had  been  seized,  and  that  one, 
the  most  obnoxious  to  punishment,  had  effected  his  escape  into 
the  territories  of  Spain,  and  that  the  authority  of  the  law  had 
been  completely  restored  throughout  the  disaffected  country — 
notwithstanding  these  stubborn  facts — he  assures  Mr.  Madison 
that  from  what  he  could  learn,  "  although  the  western  people 
let  the  militia  army  pass  quietly,  they  were  objects  of  their 
laughter  not  of  their  fear  :  and  could  have  been  cut  off  by  one 
thousand  men  in  a  thousand  places  in  the  Alleghany  mountains." 
Now  who  ever  believes  this  may  very  reasonably  infer  that, 
when  he  as  governor  of  Virginia,  allowed  Arnold  with  a  force 
amounting  to  less  than  one  thousand  men*  to  take  possession  of 
the  capital  of  that  State — at  that  time  the  strongest,  as  it  was 
the  soundest  and  most  warlike  in  the  Union — and  to  destroy  or 
carry  off  the  public  stores  in  its  neighbourhood,  it  was  laughter 
not  fear-,  which  prevented  Mr.  Jefferson  from  cutting  him  off, 
and  which  permitted  that  traitor  with  a  rope  about  his. neck, 
after  calling  in  his  undisturbed  detachments,  to  retire  as  he  had 
advanced,  by  a  march  of  twenty-five  miles,  in  safety  to  his  ships. 
And  upon  the  same  principle  it  may  be  supposed,  when  Tarle- 
ton  with  a  few  dragoons  penetrated  80  miles  higher  up  the 
country,  and  dislodged  Mr.  Jefferson  from  Monticello,  that  in 
stead  of  escaping  in  a  paroxysm  of  fright,  as  was  generally  be 
lieved,  he  really  went  off  in  a  fit  of  laughter ! 

The  idea  of  censuring  the  employment  of  force  because  it 
was  in  danger  of  being  cut  off  by  the  insurgents,  of  reprobating 
the  expedition  as  improper,  and  ridiculing  it  as  insufficient,  must 
by  its  felicity  engage  your  attention,  while  it  furnishes  one  of  the 
many  examples  left  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  of  the  weakness  of  his 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  4.  p.  389. 


44    • , 

reason  when  opposed  by  his  passions.  It  is  placed  in  bolder 
relief  by  his  assertion  that  the  confidence  of  the  insurgents  and 
their  detestation  of  the  law  and  of  the  government  had  all  been 
increased  by  this  unrighteous  act  of  Gen.  Washington  ;  and  also 
by  the  fact  that  at  the  very  time  he  was  writing  this  letter  to 
Mr.  Madison,  he  knew  that  Gen.  Morgan  with  a  detachment  of 
the  militia  force  was  safely  encamped  in  the  midst  of  the  insur 
gents,  and  keeping  them  in  awe  and  order. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  too,  in  reference  to  this  part  of  his  let 
ter,  that  the  very  man  who  was  the  acknowledged  father  of  the 
perpetual  embargo  law,  and  the  chief  magistrate  who  enforced 
its  provisions,  by  which  our  revenue  from  customs  was  com 
pletely  annihilated — is  the  one  who  denounced  the  excise  law  as 
tc  an  infernal  one,"  and  protested  that  the  power  of  enacting  it 
granted  by  the  constitution  was  a  vice  in  that  charter. 

His  letter  proceeds — "  I  expected  to  have  seen  some  justifica 
tion  of  arming  one  part  of  society  against  another — of  declar 
ing  a  civil  war  the  moment  before  the  meeting  of  that  body 
which  has  the  sole  right  of  declaring  war."  This  passage  it  is 
impossible  to  consider  without  wonder.  Here  is  a  man  of  great 
reputation  for  talents  and  learning,  of  ripe  experience,  of  long 
acquaintance  with  state  affairs,  who  had  been  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia  at  a  time  when  that  station  was  supposed  to  require  public 
spirit  and  abilities,  had  been  member  of  the  Revolutionary  Con 
gress,  Envoy  to  France,  and  chief  of  a  Cabinet  over  which 
Washington  presided,  and  of  which  Hamilton  was  a  member, 
gravely  writing  nonsense,  which,  would  disgrace  the  quibble  of 
a  county  court  attorney.  He  not  only  calls  the  employment  of 
military  force,  in  obedience  to  an  act  of  Congress,  and  to  the  Presi 
dent's  oath  of  office,  for  the  purpose  of  executing  a  constitutional 
law  and  preventing  the  dissolutoii  of  the  Union — "  the  arming  of 
one  part  of  society  against  another,"  but  accuses  the  President  of 
having  declared  a  civil  war,  and  of  having  thereby  illegally  forestall 
ed  Congress  which  had  alone  the  right  of  making  that  declaration. 

In  the  first  place  it  may  be  asked  who  ever  heard  of  such  a 
thing  before  as  the  declaration  of  a  civil  war  ?  War  has  hitherto 
been  declared  by  one  sovereignty  against  another,  by  indepen 
dent  powers.  In  our  first  war  with  Great  Britain  there  was  no 
declaration  of  war  on  either  side.  In  our  second,  there  was  a 
declaration  on  both  sides — because  in  the  first  case  the  war  was 
a  civil  one,  a  contest  between  portions  of  the  same  sovereignty  ; 
and  m  the  second  the  parties  were  two  separate  and  independent 
nations.  In  short,  a  declaration  of  war  has  always  been  understood 
to  be  an  appeal  to  the  great  family  of  nations,  in  justification  of  a 


45 

resort  to  the  trial  of  arms,  by  one  of  its  members,  against  another 
It  follows  as  a  corollary  from  this  proposition  that  had  war  been 
declared  against  the  insurgents,  it  would  ipso  facto,  have  re 
moved  all  cause  of  complaint  against  them.  For  if  they  were 
proper  objects  of  a  declaration  of  war  by  our  government,  they 
were  independent  of  the  United  States,  and  the  excise  law  could 
have  been  no  more  binding  on  them  than  on  the  people  of 
France  or  England. 

But  overlooking  for  a  moment  this  absurdity,  and  admitting 
that  the  President  had  thus  violated  the  exclusive  right  of  the 
Legislature,  let  us  see  how  Congress  if  not  forestalled,  would 
have  managed  a  declaration  of  war  in  this  case.  Was  Mr. 
Madison  the  leading  delegate  from  Virginia  and  the  most  accom 
plished  debater  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  have  risen 
in  his  place,  gravely  announced  to  the  delegations  of  the  other 
states  that  the  North-western  district  of  Virginia  was  in  a  state  of 
open  insurrection,  and  solemnly  required  them  to  declare  war 
against  it?  Was  his  colleague,  who  represented  the  disturbed 
district,  to  second  or  oppose  this  motion  ?  If  the  first,  what  be 
came  of  the  right  of  instruction,  the  reality  of  representation  ;  if 
the  second,  would  not  war  have  been  to  be  declared  against  the 
honourable  gentleman  himself?  Were  the  members  from  Penn 
sylvania,  to  insist  that  the  delegations  from  Massachusetts,  New- 
York  and  Carolina,  should  declare  war  against  their  state ;  and 
were  the  Representatives  from  Maryland  to  demand  of  Con 
gress  a  similar  favour  ?  Is  it  not  lamentable  that  such  stuff  as  this 
should  have  been  addressed  by  the  Sage  of  Monticello  to  the 
Sage  of  Montpellier^  for  the  purpose  of  effacing  from  the 
minds  of  the  American  people  a  just  sense  of  the  wisdom  and 
patriotism  of  Washington  and  Hamilton ;  and  is  it  not  yet 
more  so,  that  it  should  have  had  that  effect  ? 

I  had  hoped  this  letter  would  contain  all  I  have  to  say  in  re 
ference  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  statements  and  cavils,  respecting  the  cha 
racter  of  the  Western  insurrection  and  the  policy  of  its  suppression. 
But  I  find  the  subject,  and  I  fear  you  will,  as  toilsome  and  ex 
tensive  as  the  broad  chain  of  mountains  along  which  the  distur 
bance  took  place.  The  conclusion  of  one  branch  of  it,  is  only 
the  beginning  of  another,  and  while  expecting  rest,  we  are  called 
on  for  further  labour.  However  as  we  may  be  said  to  have  over 
passed  the  crest  of  the  principal  ridge,  we  may  reasonably  expect 
to  clear  the  whole  range  in  the  next  letter. 


46 


LETTER  III. 

IF,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  seems  to  have  required,  Gen.  Washington, 
after  Congress  had  passed  a  law  empowering  him  to  employ  the 
military  force  of  the  country,  prescribing  the  condition  and  de 
nning  the  emergency  which  were  to  render  its  employment  pro 
per — if  after  this  condition  and  this  emergency  had  been  legally 
ascertained  to  have  arisen,  he  had  declined  resorting  to  the  means 
of  restoring  the  suspended  action  of  the  laws,  and  turning  round 
upon  Congress  had  said  he  could  not  think  of  thus  declaring  war 
when  they  alone  had  the  power  of  doing  it,  it  is  not  easy  to  de 
termine  whether  he  would  have  been  more  liable  to  ridicule  or 
punishment,  more  likely  to  provoke  contempt  or  impeachment : 
either  of  which  would  have  rendered  less  expedient  the  course  of 
duplicity  and  injustice  that  with  respect  to  him,  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
then  entered  upon,  and  which,  as  you  will  perceive,  with  various 
windings  and  shiftings  he  pursued  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

The  broad  insinuation  which  succeeds — that  in  his  speech  just 
delivered  to  Congress,  he  had  uttered  falsehoods — "  the  fables  in 
the  speech,"  though  more  indecent  is  not  more  unjust  than  the 
observations  which  have  been  already  noticed.  Taken  in  con 
nexion  with  them,  it  fully  substantiates  the  complaint  of  Gen. 
Washington,  "  that  every  act  of  his  administration  had  been  tor 
tured,  and  the  grossest  and  most  invidious  misrepresentations  of 
them  made,  in  such  exaggerated  and  indecent  terms,  as  could 
scarcely  be  applied  to  a  Nero." 

To  this  complaint,  the  effusion  of  a  strong  and  heroic  mind, 
tortured  by  the  unseen  stings  of  calumny  and  ingratitude,  Mr. 
Jefferson  saw  fit  to  make  no  reply.  Gen.  Washington  he  disco 
vered,  though  aware  of  the  injuries  aimed  at  him,  was  far  from 
suspecting  the  hand  by  which  they  were  dealt,  and  though 
warned  by  his  faithful  friend  Gen.  Lee,  refused  to  admit  a  sus 
picion,  which  might  be  unfounded,  and  would  in  that  case  be  un 
generous.  He  saw,  that  instead  of  withdrawing  his  confidence 
he  had  actually  renewed  its  expression,  and  in  proof  of  it  had  re 
vealed  the  substance  of  the  information  which  had  been  conveyed 
to  him — that  like  Alexander,  he  showed  the  accusation  while  he 
swallowed  the  draught.  In  this  mood  of  magnanimity,  so  conge 
nial  to  a  soul  of  dignity  and  honour,  and  so  likely  to  extinguish 
every  rising  suspicion,  he  sagaciously  determined  to  leave  him  ; 
forbearing  to  disturb  a  temper  of  mind,  which  by  opposing  un 
guarded  generosity  to  collected  guile,  was  so  favourable  to  the 
success  of  his  machinations,  or  to  commit  himself,  in  reference  to 


47 

the  unheeded  warning  of  Gen.  Lee,  by  any  thing  more  specific, 
than  coarse  and  irresponsible  abuse  of  its  author. 

It  cannot  escape  your  observation,  that  this  officer's  character 
and  feelings,  were,  as  well  as  the  President's,  deeply  implicated 
in  the  censures  and  sarcasms  thus  levelled  against  the  Western 
Expedition — an  injustice,  which  by  reference  to  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Giles,  it  seems  was  repeated  for  the  edification  of  members  in  the 
next  Congress.  Mr.  Giles,  like  Mr.  Madison,  was  a  delegate 
from  the  President's  own  State,  (of  which  Gen.  Lee  also  was  a 
citizen)  was  second  only  to  Mr.  Madison  in  skill  and  eloquence 
as  a  debater,  and  was  second  to  no  man  in  violence  of  opposition ; 
of  ardent  temper,  and  as  deeply  tainted  with  the  doctrines  of  re 
volutionary  France,  as  she  was  with  cruelty  at  home  and  rapacity 
abroad.  To  him,  Mr.  Jefferson  speaking  of  this  expedition,  says 
(Vol.  3.  p.  318.)  it  was  got  up,  "  to  quell  the  pretended  insurrec 
tion  in  the  west,  and  to  march  against  men  at  their  ploughs." 

Now  even  if  Gen.  Lee  was,  'or  ought  to  have  been  so  much  of 
a  stoic  as  to  be  indifferent  on  his  own  account  to  this  disparage 
ment,  to  which  Mr.  Jefferson's  place  in  the  confidence  of  the 
President  added  weight,  he  may  be  supposed  to  have  felt,  and  may 
be  pardoned  for  the  feeling,  dissatisfied,  somewhat  on  account 
of  his  friends  and  associates — of  Gen.  Washington,  who  distin 
guished  him,  though  the  youngest  in  revolutionary  rank  among 
the  general  officers  employed,  by  conferring  on  him  the  chief  com 
mand — of  Gen.  Hamilton  who  earnestly  concurred  in  that  selec 
tion — of  Gen.  Morgan,  the  hero  of  Quebec,  of  Saratoga,  and  the 
Cowpens,  the  Ney  of  the  West,  '  the  bravest  of  our  brave' — who 
had  from  motives  of  patriotism  and  personal  esteem,  consented  to 
serve  under  him  on  the  occasion — of  the  Governors  of  Pennsyl 
vania  and  New  Jersey,  who  had  buried  their  sense  of  existing 
equality  and  former  precedence,  in  deference  to  the  choice  of  the 
President  and  the  demands  of  the  crisis — of  Gen.  Smith  a  dis 
tinguished  revolutionary  officer — in  short,  of  the  whole  army, 
thus  described  to  the  Representatives  of  the  nation,  as  the  pup 
pets  of  a  silly  and  useless  exhibition  of  military  force,  and  the  in 
struments  of  a  criminal  commencement  of  civil  war. 

As  after  this  waste  of  absurdity  and  slander  it  will  probably 
gratify  you  to  contemplate  subjects  of  good  sense  and  truth,  I 
shall  here  introduce  a  public  letter,  addressed  to  Gen.  Lee,  by 
Gen.  Washington,  on  occasion  of  his  returning  to  the  seat  of  go 
vernment  after  reviewing  the  army  at  Cumberland  and  Bedford, 
which  exhibits  in  the  clearest  light,  his  tenderness  for  civil  rights, 
his  purity  of  purpose,  and  his  scrupulous  respect  for  the  laws  of 
his  country — and  also  the  opinion  he  entertained  of  the  motives 


48 

•  • 

and  conduct  of  the  body  of  citizens  who  were  engaged  in  this  im 
portant  and  successful  enterprise. 

United  States,  (Bedford,)  October  20th,  1794. 

"  To  HENRY  LEE,  ESQ., 

Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Militia  Army  on  its  inarch 
against  the  insurgents  in  certain  western  counties  of 
Pennsylvania. 

SiR5 — Being  about  to  return  to  the  seat  of  government,  I  can 
not  take  my  departure,  without  conveying  through  you  to  the 
Army  under  your  command,  the  very  high  sense  I  entertain  of 
the  enlightened  and  patriotic  zeal  for  the  constitution  and  the 
laws,  which  has  led  them  cheerfully  to  quit  their  families  and 
homes,  and  the  comforts  of  private  life,  to  undertake  and  thus 
far  to  perform  a  long  and  fatiguing  march — and  to  encounter 
and  endure  the  hardships  and  privations  of  a  military  life.  Their 
conduct  hitherto  affords  a  full  assurance  that  their  perseverance 
will  be  equal  to  their  zeal,  and  that  they  will  continue  to  perform 
with  alacrity,  whatever  the  full  accomplishment  of  the  object  of 
their  march  shall  render  necessary. 

"  No  citizens  of  the  United  States  can  ever  be  engaged  in  a  ser 
vice  more  important  to  their  country.  It  is  nothing  less  than  to 
consolidate  and  preserve  the  blessings  of  that  revolution  which, 
at  much  expense  of  blood  and  treasure,  constituted  us  a  free  and 
independent  nation.  It  is  to  give  to  the  world  an  illustrious  ex 
ample  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  the  cause  of  mankind.  1 
experience  heartfelt  satisfaction  in  the  conviction  that  the  conduct 
of  the  troops  throughout,  will  be  in  every  respect  answerable  to 
the  goodness  of  the  cause,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  stake. 

"  There  is  but  one  point  on  which  I  think  it  proper  to  add  a 
special  recommendation.  It  is  this,  that  every  officer  and  soldier 
will  constantly  bear  in  mind  that  he  comes  to  support  the  laws, 
and  that  it  would  be  peculiarly  unbecoming  in  him  to  be  in  any 
way  the  infractor  of  them — that  the  essential  principles  of  free 
government  confine  the  province  of  the  military  when  called  forth 
on  such  occasions,  to  these  two  objects. 

"  First — to  combat  and  subdue  all  who  may  be  found  in  arm**, 
in  opposition  to  the  national  will  and  authority. 

"  Secondly — to  aid  and  support  the  civil  magistrate  in  bringing 
offenders  to  justice.  The  dispensation  of  this  justice  belongs  to 
the  civil  magistrate  ;  and  let  it  ever  be  our  pride  and  our  glory, 
to  leave  the  sacred  deposite  there,  unviolated. 

"Convey  to  my  fellow-citizens  in  arms, my  warm  acknowledge 
ments  for  the  readiness  with  which  they  have  hitherto  seconded 


49 

me  in  the  most  delicate  and  momentous  duty  the  chief  magis^ 
trate  of  a  free  people  can  have  to  perform ;  and  add  my  affection 
ate  wishes  for  their  health,  comfort,  and  success.  Could  my 
further  presence  with  them  have  been  necessary,  or  compatible 
with  my  civil  duties,  at  a  period,  when  the  approaching  com 
mencement  of  a  session  of  Congress  peculiarly  urges  me  to  return 
to  the  seat  of  government,  it  wolild  not  have  been  withheld.  In 
leaving  them,  I  have  less  regret,  as  I  know  I  commit  them  to 
an  able  and  faithful  direction,  and  that  this  direction  will  be  ably 
and  faithfully  seconded  by  all. 

G.  WASHINGTON."* 

It  will  illustrate  this  manoeuvre  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  hostility  to 
Gen.  Washington's  reputation  and  policy,  to  bring  into  view  his 
own  proceedings,  in  relation  to  the  famous  conspiracy  of  Burr. 
As  a  preliminary  to  this  comparison,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  with 
regard  to  this  individual,  as  to  every  other  with  whom  his  interests 
came  into  real  or  imaginary  rivalship,  we  shall  find  his  language 
double-tongued,  and  his  conduct  insincere.  You  need  not  be 
reminded  that  they  were  competitors  for  the  Presidency,  in  an 
election,  which  after  many  ballotings  in  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives,  terminated  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  In  his  Anas, 
(Vol.  4,  p.  520.)  under  the  date  of  January  26th,  1804,  he  says, 
"  I  had  never  seen  Col.  Burr,  till  he  came  as  a  member  of  Senate. 
His  conduct  very  soon  inspired  me  with  distrust.  I  habitually 
cautioned  Mr.  Madison  against  trusting  him  too  much.  I  saw 
afterwards,  that  under  Gen.  Washington's  and  Mr.  Adam's 
administrations,  whenever  a  great  military  appointment  or  a 
diplomatic  one  was  to  be  made,  he  came  post  to  Philadelphia  to 
show  himself,  and  in  fact  that  he  was  always  at  market,  if  they 
had  wanted  him.  He  was  indeed  told  by  Dayton,  in  1800,  that 
he  might  be  Secretary  at  War ;  but  this  bid  was  too  late.  His 
election  as  Vice  President  was  then  foreseen.  With  these  im 
pressions  of  Col.  Burr,  there  never  had  been  any  intimacy  between 
us,  and  but  little  association." 

These  impressions,  it  would  thus  appear,  had  been  conceived 
as  far  back  as  Gen.  Washington's  first  administration,  and  had 
continued  through  that  of  Mr.  Adams  :  Mr.  Jefferson  all  this 
time  distrusting  Burr's  character,  and  from  an  opinion  that  he 
was  destitute  of  principle,  avoiding  his  society.  This,  it  must  be 
confessed,  is  a  lofty  and  disdainful  attitude.  On  the  reverse  of 
the  medal,  however,  we  shall  see  him  prostrate,  and  profuse  in 

*  In  MSS. 

7 


50 

fljh 

expressing  the  fondest  esteem  and  warmest  respect  for  this  same 
marketable  personage,  after  the  commencement,  and  down  to  the 
termination  of  the  very  period  assigned  for  the  existence  of  his 
suspicious  aversion.  In  a  letter  of  the  17th  June,  1797,  from  the 
seat  of  government,  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  Vice  President,  thus  wrote 
to  Col.  Burr,  (Vol.  3,  p.  356.)  "  Dear  Sir,— The  newspapers 
give  so  minutely  what  is  passing  in  Congress,  that  nothing  in 
detail  can  be  wanting  for  your  information.  Perhaps,  however, 
some  general  view  of  our  situation  and  prospects,  since  you  left 
us,  may  not  be  unacceptable.  At  any  rate,  it  will  give  me  an 
opportunity  of  recalling  myself  to  your  memory,  and  of 
evidencing  my  esteem  for  you"  After  entertaining  this  estima 
ble  correspondent,  with  his  favourite  topics,  abuse  of  the  party  op 
posed  to  their  common  scheme  of  ambition,  and  with  taunts  and 
slander  against  Gen.  Washington,  he  concludes, — "  I  am,  with 
great  and  sincere  esteem,  dear  sir,  your  friend  and  servant." 

On  the  15th  of  December,  1800  ;  when  he  supposed  that  the 
electoral  colleges  had  returned  himself  President,  and  Burr  Vice 
President,  he  thus  pours  forth  congratulations  and  compliments 
to  the  person,  whom  he  professes  to  have  considered  deficient  in 
integrity,  and  unworthy  of  trust,  evincing  at  the  same  time  his 
respect  for  truth,  and  for  the  people  to  whose  confidence  he  owed 
his  imagined  triumph  ;  (Vol.  3,  p.  445.)  "  While  I  must  con 
gratulate  you,  my  dear  sir,  on  the  issue  of  this  contest,  because  it 
is  more  honourable,  and  doubtless  more  grateful  to  you  than  any 
station  within  the  competence  of  the  chief  magistrate,  yet  for  my 
self,  and  for  the  substantial  service  of  the  public,  I  feel  most 
sensibly  the  loss  we  sustain,  of  your  aid  in  our  new  administra 
tion.  It  leaves  a  chasm  in  my  arrangements,  which  cannot  be 
adequately  filled  up.  I  had  endeavoured  to  compose  an  adminis 
tration,  whose  talents,  integrity,  names,  and  dispositions,  should 
at  once  inspire  unbounded  public  confidence,  and  insure  a  perfect 
harmony  in  the  conduct  of  the  public  business.  I  lose  you  from 
the  list,  and  am  not  sure  of  all  the  others.  Should  the  gentle 
men,  who  possess  the  public  confidence,  decline  taking  a  part  in 
their  affairs,  and  force  us  to  take  persons  unknown  to  the  people, 
the  evil  genius  of  this  country,  may  realise  his  avowal,  that  '  he 
will  beat  down  the  administration.'  " 

If  any  thing  can  exceed  the  odious  posture  in  which  the 
hypocrisy  of  this  letter  places  its  author,  it  must  be  the  detestation 
excited  by  supposing  it  sincere  ;  for  then  his  insinuated  distrust 
against  Burr,  repeated  in  his  AnaSj  "at  a  later  date,"  wrill  indicate 
a  still  more  execrable  spirit.  It  is  however,  in  either  shape,  not 
more  despicable  than  ridiculous.  For  this  outburst  of  flattery  and 


51 

gratulation  was  premature.  Burr  had  received  precisely  the  same 
electoral  vote  that  was  given  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  the  latter  was 
not  really  elected  for  the  station,  the  patronage  of  which  he  is  here 
munificiently  dispensing,  until  the  19th  of  the  following  February. 

But  the  frowns  of  aversion,  and  the  smiles  of  contempt  must 
alike  give  place  to  the  glow  of  grief  and  indignation,  at  perceiving 
that  the  man  who  was  just  about  to  fill  the  office  of  chief  magis 
trate  of  our  Republic,  could  denounce  Alexander  Hamilton,  as 
"  the  evil  genius  of  the  United  States :"  Alexander  Hamilton — a 
name,  that  no  honest  American  can  repeat  without  gratitude  and 
admiration  ;  a  man,  every  exertion  of  whose  intellect  was  lumin 
ous,  every  throb  of  whose  heart  was  honourable. 

He  it  was  who,  through  the  rudest  season  of  the  Revolution — 
when  the  governor  of  Virginia,  yielded  his  capital  unresistingly, 
to  a  feeble  but  cruel  invader,  his  station,  ingloriously  to  the 
weight  of  a  crisis,  which  would  have  strung  the  nerve  of  a 
patriot's  arm,  and  scampered  from  hill  to  hill,  before  "  a  plump"  of 
hostile  troopers — gave  Washington  the  aid  of  youthful  intrepidity, 
in  the  field  of  battle,  and  of  sage  advice  in  the  midnight  tent ; 
whose  eloquence  was  as  fervid  as  his  courage,  whose  pen  as 
brilliant  as  his  sword,  who  assisted  in  forming,  and  excelled  in 
recommending  that  Government,  the  chief  honour  of  which  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  about  to  wear  :  who,  when  his  country  had  no 
credit  and  but  crude  resources,  drew  from  his  own  mind,  radiant 
with  intelligence  as  the  firmament  with  stars,  a  system  of 
finance,  which  complete  and  efficient,  energetic  and  just,  from 
the  instant  of  its  production,  furnished  revenue,  and  established 
credit ;  a  system  which,  though  opposed,  and  reprobated,  and 
denounced  by  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  partisans,  they  could  never 
through  a  domination  of  twenty-four  years,  either  dispense 
with,  or  improve. 

He  it  was,  who,  while  engrossed  by  the  claims  of  an  official 
station,  and  fettered  by  the  demands  of  a  laborious  profession ; 
with  the  hard-earned  wages  of  which  he  supported  in  honour 
and  comfort  a  growing  family  ;  in  the  cabin  of  an  Albany 
packet  that  was  conveying  him  to  the  contention  of  courts  and 
confusion  of  clients,  wrote  the  first  number  of  the  Federalist — 
laying  out  the  scope  of  that  unrivalled  political  work,  which  of 
itself  vanquished  the  enemies  of  the  Constitution. 

"  'Twas  on  a  summer's  evening  in  his  tent ; 
"  That  day  he  overcame  the  Nervii. 

Such  was  in  miniature,  the  glorious  man,  whom  Mr.  Jefferson 
cursed  as  "  the  evil  genius  of  his  country,"  whose  conduct  and 


52 

motives  through  his  whole  political  fife,  lie  never  ceased  to  tra 
duce,  and  whose  memory,  like  that  of  Gen.  Lee  he  pursued 
with  slander,  long  after  the  stimulated  vengeance  of  the  very 
person  to  whom  he  was  now  abusing  him,  had  hurried  its  noble 
object  to  a  bloody  grave. 

To  this  person  he  continued  to  manifest  the  most  respectful 
friendship,  as  will  be  seen  by  a  letter  of  the  1st  of  February, 
1801,  just  before  their  competition  for  the  Presidency  was  to  be 
decided  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  when  it  was  desi 
rable  not  to  irritate  Burr  or  disgust  his  friends.  (Vol.  3.  p.  449.) 

"  Dear  Sir, — It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  enemy  would  en 
deavour  to  sow  tares*  between  us  that  they  might  divide  us  and 
our  friends.  Every  consideration  assures  me  that  you  will  be 
on  your  guard  against  this,  as  I  assure  you  I  am  strongly.  I 
hear  of  one  stratagem  so  imposing  and  so  base,  that  it  is  proper 
I  should  notice  it  to  you.  Mr.  Mumford,  who  is  here,  says  he 
saw  at  New- York  before  he  left  it,  an  original  letter  of  mine  to 
Judge  Breckenridge,  in  which  are  sentiments  highly  injurious  to 
you.  He  knows  my  hand  writing  and  did  not  doubt  that  to  be 
genuine.  I  inclose  you  a  copy  taken  from  the  press  copy  of 
the  only  letter  I  ever  wrote  Judge  Breckenridge  in  my  life ;  the 
press  copy  itself  has  been  shown  to  several  of  our  mutual  friends 
here.  Of  consequence  the  letter  seen  by  Mr.  Mumford  must 
have  been  a  forgery,  and  if  it  contains  a  sentiment  unfriendly  or 
disrespecful  to  you  I  affirm  it  solemnly  to  be  a  forgery,  as  also 
if  it  varies  from  the  copy  enclosed.  With  the  common  trash  of 
slander  I  should  not  think  of  troubling  you,  but  the  forgery  of 
one's  handwriting  is  too  imposing  to  be  neglected.  A  mutual 
knowledge  of  each  other  furnishes  us  with  the  best  test  of  the 
contrivances  which  will  be  practised  by  the  enemies  of  both." 

The  difference  here  in  point  of  fact  is  between  the  statements 
of  Mr.  Mumford,  and  the  press  copy,  and  as  Mr.  Jefferson  him 
self  affirms  that  from  the  commencment  of  his  acquaintance  with 
Burr,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  expressing  to  Mr.  Madison  his  sus 
picions  of  his  honesty,  and  perceived  that  he  kept  himself  in  the 
market,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  indulged  the  same 
sentiments  in  letters  to  other  gentlemen,  and  that  consequently 
the  press  copy  was  mistaken.  This  is  the  more  probable  as  a 
similar  accident  will  hereafter  be  pointed  out,  and  as  he  does  not 
refer  Burr  to  Judge  Breckenridge,  either  for  a  sight  of  the  letter 
itself  or  for  a  copy  of  it.  The  last  sentence  however  contains 

*  His  favourite  saintly  phrase  for  the  introduction  of  what,  to  speak  indul 
gently,  may  be  called  a  humbug. 


53 

the  quintessence  of  deceit,  where  he  tells  Burr,  that  by  reflecting 
on  their  mutual  sincerity  and  reciprocal  respect,  he  would  furnish 
himself  with  the  best  possible  test  for  detecting  the  poison  of  the 
mischief-making  fabrications  of  their  enemies.  That  is,  *  if  you 
hear  any  thing  of  me  inconsistent  with  honour  on  my  part,  and 
with  respect  and  friendship  for  you,  you  have  only  to  feel  assur 
ed  that  it  is  a  base  contrivance  of  our  mutual  enemies  to  sow 
tares  between  us.  This  is  the  reasoning  I  shall  employ  should 
a  similar  stratagem  be  attempted  on  me.'  Now.  only  suppose 
that  Mr.  Madison  had  just  at  this  time,  discovered  to  Burr 
one  of  the  "  habitual  cautions,"  which  he  had  received  in  re 
gard  to  him  ! 

When  however  in  1807,  his  friend  Burr  was  arrested  on  a 
charge  of  treason,  he  discovered  that  he  had  all  along  despised 
him,  in  spite  both  of  his  own  endearing  professions,  and  of  the 
equally  cordial  effusions  of  his  press  copy.  '  In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Giles  of  the  20th  of  April,  1807,  (Vol.  4.  p.  74.)  he  says, 
"  Against  Bun-  personally  I  never  had  one  hostile  sentiment.  I 
never  indeed  thought  him,  an  honest  frank-dealing  man,  but 
considered  him  as  a  crooked  gun,  or  other  perverted  machine, 
whose  aim  or  shot  you  could  never  be  sure  of.* 

The  contrast  between  these  sentiments  and  those  in  the  Anas, 
on  the  one  hand  ;  and  those  in  his  letters  to  Burr, — all  volun 
teers,  not  answers — on  the  other  ;  will  be  useful  in  enabling  you 
to  comprehend  the  difference  of  his  style,  when  speaking  to  a 
man  he  hated,  and  of  him.  It  justifies  the  inference  that  at  the 
very  moment  he  was  so  grossly  traducing  Gen.  Lee  to  Gen. 
Washington,  declaring  that  he  had  never  "  done  him  any  other 
injury  than  that  of  declining  his  confidences,"  he  would  have 
been  glad,  had  there  been  the  least  prospect  of  promoting  his 
own  interest  by  'it,  to  encumber  him  with  epistles  and  press 
copies  of  homage  and  attachment. 

Of  the  object  of  the  conspiracy,  his  conduct  in  regard  to 
which  is  now  to  be  compared  with  that  pursued  in  quelling  the 
Western  insurrection,  he  gives  the  following  account  in  a  letter 

*  From  this  passage  of  the  text,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  when 
Arnold's  detachment  marched  upon  Richmond,  Governor  Jefferson  in  the 
hurry  of  the  moment,  was  led  to  believe  that  they  had  "  crooked  guns,"  and 
consequently  could  not  feel  "  sure  "  that  their  shot  might  not  hit  him  on 
the  other  side  of  James  river.  This  reasonable  hypoiho sis,  while  it  accounts 
for  his  slipping  about  like  quicksilver  on  the  right  bank,  all  the  time  Arnold 
was  in  his  Capital — a  fact  which  he  states,  without  explaining  it  very  clearly 
— (Vol.  4.  pp.  39,  40.)  creates  a  strong  inference  in  favour  of  his  patriotism, 
viz. — that  but  for  their  "  perverted  machines,"  he  would  boldy  have  attacked 
the  enemy. 


54 

^ 

of  the  2d  of  April,  1807,  to  our  minister  in  Spain  (Vol.  4,  p.  71.) 
"  Although  at  first  he  proposed  a  separation  of  the  Western 
country,  and  on  that  ground  received  encouragement  and  aid 
from  Yrujo,  according  to  the  usual  spirit  of  his  government 
towards  us,  yet  he  very  early  saw  that  the  fidelity  of  the  West 
ern  country  was  not  to  be  shaken,  and  turned  himself  wholly 
towards  Mexico."  And  in  the  letter  to  Mr.  Giles  of  the  20th, 
he  thus  describes  the  points  of  treason  he  expects  to  be  establish 
ed,  by  witnesses  whose  testimony  he  affirms*  "will  satisfy  the 
world,  if  not  the  Judge,  of  Burr's  guilt " — "  And  I  do  suppose 
the  following  overt  acts  will  be  proved.  1.  The  enlistment  of 
men,  in  a  regular  way.  2.  The  regular  mounting  of  guard 
round  Blennerhassets  island  when  they  discovered  Governor 
Tiffin's  men  to  be  on  them,  modo  guerrino  arriati.  3.  The 
rendezvous  of  Burr  with  his  men  at  the  mouth  of  Cumberland. 
4.  His  letter  to  the  acting  Governor  of  Mississippi  holding  up 
the  prospect  of  civil  war.  5.  His  capitulation  regularly  signed 
with  the  aids  of  the  Governor,  as  between  two  independent 
hostile  commanders." 

These  acts  he  says  amount  incontestably  to  treason.  Yet  the 
attack  of  five  hundred  armed  men,  on  the  house  of  the  inspector 
of  the  revenue,  and  a  detachment  of  the  troops  of  the  United 
States — the  burning  the  inspector's  house  and  forcing  an  officer 
of  the  United  States  Army,  to  march  out  and  surrender — the 
shooting  at  the  marshal  with  intent  to  kill  him,  while  in  the  ex 
ecution  of  his  duty — the  seizing  and  violating  the  mail  of  the 
United  States  on  its  passage  to  the  seat  of  government — the  arrest 
and  intimidation  of  the  marshal — the  banishment  of  those  citi 
zens  of  Pittsburg,  who  were  suspected  of  allegiance  to  their 
country — open  resistance  to  the  laws,  and  defiance  of  the  govern 
ment — the  rejection  of  an  offered  amnesty — the  preparation  of  a 
force  of  7000  men  to  wage  war  against  the  United  States,  and  to 
effect  ultimately  a  dissolution  of  the  Union — all  these  revolting 
outrages,  in  the  comparative  infancy  of  the  government,  when 
they  were  levelled  at  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  nation,  through 
the  fame  and  feelings  of  President  Washington,  Mr.  Jefferson 
considered  as  nearly  harmless,  as  provoked  by  "  an  infernal  law," 
and  as  at  most,  merely  "  riotous  transactions  !  ! " 

The  force  with  which  Burr  was  to  accomplish  his  designs,  he 
estimates  as  follows,  in  a  letter  of  the  14th  July,  1807,  to  Gen. 
La  Fayette,  (Vol.  4.  p.  97.)  "  Burr  had  probably  engaged  one 
thousand  men  to  follow  his  fortunes,  without  letting  them  know 
his  projects,  otherwise  than  by  assuring  them  the  government 
approved  of  them.  The  moment  a  proclamation  issued  unde- 


55. 

ceiving  them,  he  found  himself  left  with  about  thirty  desperadoes 
only."  This  conspirator  with  his  gang  of  thirty  followers  how 
ever,  was  too  formidable  to  be  left  unpunished,  whether  in  due 
course  of  law  or  not,  and  therefore  the  President  of  the  United 
States  descended  from  his  station,  and  took  the  lead  in  hunting 
him  down. 

Accordingly,  on  the  2d  of  June,  1807,  he  opened  a  corres 
pondence  with  the  District  Attorney  of  the  United  States,  (Vol.  4. 
pp.  75  to  103.)  which  for  indecency  to  the  court,  disrespect  for 
the  independence  of  a  co-ordinate  department,  outrage  upon  the 
sanctity  of  justice,  and  cruelty  to  the  prisoner,  was  never  exceeded 
by  the  executive  authority  of  any  nation,  in  any  age.  After 
saying  to  Mr.  Hay,  "  while  Burr's  case  is  depending  before  the 
court,  I  will  trouble  you  from  time  to  time  with  what  occurs  to 
me," — he  proceeds  to  counsel  him  as  to  the  management  of  vari 
ous  stages  of  the  prosecution,  inspiring  him  all  the  while  with 
distrust  of  the  purity  of  the  court  before  which  he  was  pleading, 
until  the  19th  of  June,  when  he  makes  a  suggestion,  the  wick 
edness  of  which  cannot  be  adequately  expressed  in  any  language 
but  his  own.  (p.  86.) ."  I  inclose  you  the  copy  of  a  letter  received 
last  night,  and  giving  singular  information.  I  have  inquired 
into  the  character  of  Graybell.  He  was  an  old  revolutionary 
captain,  is  now  a  flour  merchant  in  Baltimore,  of  the  most  respect 
able  character,  and  whose  word  would  be  taken  as  implicitly  as 
any  man's  for  whatever  he  affirms.  The  letter  writer  also  is  a 
man  of  entire  respectability.  I  am  well  informed  that  for  more 
than  a  twelvemonth  it  has  been  believed  in  Baltimore,  generally, 
that  Burr  was  engaged  in  some  criminal  enterprise,  and  that 
Luther  Martin  knew  all  about  it.  We  think  you  should  imme 
diately  despatch  a  subpoena  for  Graybell ;  and  while  that  is  on 
the  road,  you  will  have  time  to  consider  in  what  form  you  will 
use  his  testimony  :  e.  g.  shall  Luther  Martin  be  summoned  as  a 
witness  against  Burr,  and  Graybell  held  ready  to  confront  him  ? 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  we  could  examine  a  witness  to  dis 
credit  our  own  witness.  Besides,  the  lawyers  say  that  they  are 
privileged  from  being  forced  to  breaches  of  confidence,  and  that 
no  others  are.  Shall  we  move  to  commit  Luther  Martin,  as  par- 
ticeps  criminis  with  Burr  ?  Graybell  will  fix  upon  him  suspi 
cion  of  treason  at  least.  And  at  any  rate,  his  testimony  will  put 
down  this  unprincipled  and  impudent  federal  bull-dog,  and  add 
another  proof  that  the  most  clamorous  defenders  of  Burr  are  all 
his  accomplices.  It  will  explain  why  Luther  Martin  flew  so 
hastily  to  the  aid  of  his  '  honourable  friend,'  abandoning  his 
clients  and  their  property  during  the  session  of  a  principal  court 


56          „ 

in  Maryland,  now  filled,  as  I  am  told,  with  the  clamours  and  ruin 
of  his  clients." 

You  perceive  from  this  that  a  general  belief,  reported  to  ex 
ist  in  Baltimore,  of  Burr's  having  meditated  an  unlawful  enter 
prise,  of  some  sort  or  other,  and  that  Luther  Martin  knew  all 
about  it  ;  with  the  second  hand  assertion  that  this  knowledge 
could  be  proved  by  a  third  person,  was  cause  sufficient  in  the 
humane  and  philosophic  mind  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  to  fix  the  stigma 
of  treason  on  Luther  Martin,  by  arresting  him  as  particeps 
criminis  with  the  prisoner  he  was  defending.  And  if  this  un 
just  proceeding,  should  fail  of  every  other  effect,  it  would  at  least 
have  the  happy  one  "  of  putting  down  this  unprincipled  and  im 
pudent  federal  bull-dog," — that  is,  it  would  silence  him  as  an 
advocate  for  Burr — would  deprive  the  prisoner  of  the  assistance 
of  the  counsel  on  whom  he  peculiarly  relied  in  a  trial  for  his  life, 
and  thus  expose  him  to  all  the  violence  and  stratagem,  that  the 
zeal  of  lawyers  and  the  unbridled  hate  of  the  Executive,  could 
impart  to  the  prosecution.  Had  this  cruel  project  been  fulfilled, 
Burr,  would  have  stood  like  Both  well,  his  sword-arm  broken  and 
his  dagger  lost,  while  his  blood-thirsty  and  hypocritical  adversary, 
represented  by  the  President,  brandished  his  impatient  blade  aloft, 
and  plunged  it  to  the  hilt  in  his  body. 

In  unison  with  this  unparalelled  mixture  of  craft  and  inhumani 
ty,  more  fit  for  the  cells  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  than  for  an 
American  court  of  justice,  is  his  resentment  at  the  zeal  with  which 
Mr.  Martin  undertook  the  defence  of  a  man,  who  though  accus 
ed  was  yet  unconvicted,  was  under  the  legal  presumption  of 
innocence,  had  been  dear  to  Martin  as  a  friend,  and  had  moreover 
a  right,  on  the  usual  conditions,  to  his  services.  The  whole  cor 
respondence  with  Mr.  Hay,  is  of  this  cast,  diversified  occasionally 
with  promises  of  new  witnesses,  and  interspersed  towards  the 
close  of  the  trial  with  insinuations  against  the  integrity  of  the 
court ;  leaving  but  one  doubt  as  to  the  disposition  of  President 
Jefferson  at  the  time,  that  is,  whether  lie  was  more  eager  to  hang 
the  judge  or  the  criminal. 

Now,  if  we  look  back  to  President  Washington,  whose  influence 
in  our  public  counsels,  he  had  deprecated  and  decried,  in  a  letter 
to  this  very  Col.  Burr,*  to  the  period  when  the  western  insurrec- 

*  "  I  had  always  hoped,  that  the  popularity  of  the  late  President  being  once 
withdrawn  from  active  effect,  the  natural  feelings  of  the  people  towards  liber 
ty  would  restore  the  equilibrium  between  the  executive  and  legislative  depart 
ments,  which  had  been  destroyed  by  the  superior  weight  and  effect  of  that 
popularity ;  and  that  their  natural  feelings  of  moralobligation  would  discoun 
tenance  the  ungrateful  predilection  of  the  Executive,  in  favour  of  Great 
Britain.  But  unfortunately,  the  preceding  measures  had  already  alienated  the 


57 

tion  was  suppressed,  and  the  heads  of  that  conspiracy,  who  had 
not  fled  the  country,  were  placed  at  the  bar  of  justice,  do  we  find 
Washington  stimulating  the  zeal,  complicating  the  chicanery,  or 
sharpening  the  Shylock  weapons  of  the  prosecution  ;  do  we  find 
him  looking  out  for  witnesses,  collecting  imputations,  proposing  to 
muzzle  the  prisoner's  counsel,  or  "  to  heap  coals  of  fire  on  the 
head  of  the  judge  ?"  (p.  103.)  No  !  his  sentiments  and  conduct 
were  honourable  to  his  country,  suitable  to  his  station,  and  agree 
able  to  the  lustre  of  his  unclouded  virtues.  "  The  dispensation 
of  this  justice,"  said  he,  in  reference  to  the  insurgents,  "  belongs  to 
the  civil  magistrate."  (that  is  the  judge)  "  and  let  it  be  our  pride 
and  our  glory,  to  leave  the  sacred  deposit,  there  un  violated." 

In  a  spirit  of  mercy  congenial  with  this  exalted  justice,  he  par 
doned  the  two  offenders  who  were  convicted  of  treason  ;  and  the 
danger  of  the  crisis  being  over,  had  the  prosecutions  in  other 
cases  dismissed.  Arid  in  the  same  spirit,  Gen.  Lee  replied  to 
certain  individuals,  who  proposed  to  pursue  Bradford  into  the 
territory  of  Spain,  and  bring  him  back  for  punishment,  that  the 
dignity  of  the  laws  was  vindicated  by  his  flight  from  their 
authority,  and  that  he  could  never  countenance  a  proposal  which 
had  for  its  object,  "  the  hunting  an  American  citizen  to  death." 

Admonished  by  the  length  of  this  letter,  I  refrain  from  pressing 
any  further  at  this  time  on  your  patience.  Repair  your  atten 
tion  however,  for  by  the  next  opportunity  you  may  count  upon 
receiving  the  conclusion  of  my  remarks  on  the  pregnant  epistle 
to  Mr.  Madison. 


LETTER  IV. 

SHOULD  your  good  nature  revolt  at  the  vindictive  appearance  of 
the  examination,  through  the  perplexities  of  which  I  am  endea 
vouring  to  guide  you,  I  have  little  to  soothe  it  with,  but  an 
expression  of  my  regret,  or  to  relieve  it  by,  but  an  appeal  to  your 
justice.  If  Mr.  Jefferson's  character  is  now  for  the  first  time  to 
be  displayed  in  its  true  light,  and  to  be  divested  of  the  folds  of 
artifice  and  delusion,  in  which  he  disguised  it,  it  is  only  because 
he  painted  in  false  and  opprobrious  colours  that  of  others ;  and 
though  it  be,  when  thus  exposed,  a  subject  of  unpleasing  contern- 

iiation  who  were  the  object  of  them,  had  excited  re-action  from  them,  and  this 
re-action  has  on  the  minds  of  our  citizens,  an  effect  which  supplies  that  of  the 
Washington  popularity."  Letter  to  Col.  Burr,  June,  \tth,  1797.  (Vol.  3,  pp. 
357,  358.) 

S 


58 

plation,  it  may  prove  a  useful  and  instructive  study.  In  the 
system  of  the  moral  world,  it  seems  to  be  established  by  Provi 
dence,  that  injustice  done  to  our  neighbour,  should  sooner  or  later 
recoil  on  ourselves.  And  naturalists  tell  us,  that  although,  at 
first  sight,  the  history  of  the  lion  appears  more  entertaining  than 
that  of  all  other  beasts,  yet  that  on  close  inspection,  more  vivid 
curiosity  and  agreeable  wonder  are  excited  by  the  structure  of  the 
spider — that  sly  insect,  which — 

"  Throned  on  the  centre  of  his  thin  designs, 
"  Proud  of  a  vast  extent  of  flimsy  lines," 

entangles  and  destroys  the  bold  hornet  and  the  blossom-loving  bee. 
Pursuing  then  the  analysis  of  this  envenomed  letter  to  Mr. 
Madison,  let  us  pass  from  its  palpable  injustice  towards  Gen. 
Washington  and  Gen.  Lee,  to  the  consideration  of  its  main 
design,  which  is  both  concealed,  and  betrayed  by  an  artifice,  not 
unlike  the  trick  of  an  Indian  juggler.  The  object  of  all  Mr. 
Jefferson's  schemes  and  movements,  of  his  friendships  and  hatreds, 
his  slanders  and  praises  •  of  that  philosophy,  for  worship  in  the 
sanctuary  of  which,  he  would  have  the  world  believe  he  was  pre 
destined  by  nature,  (Vol.  4.  p.  126,  et  passim.)  of  his  mis-quota 
tion  from  the  Georgics,  (Vol.  3.  p.  337.)  his  "  mould-board  of 
least  resistance  ;"  (p.  334.)  of  that  retirement  which  was  so  pro 
found,  that  lest  it  should  be  unnoticed,  he  proclaimed  it  in  .all 
directions,  as  the  Irishman  was  to  whistle  when  he  should  fall 
asleep  ;  the  real  object  of  all  these  professions,  passions,  preten 
sions,  and  manoeuvres,  was  the  office  of  President.  For  this  he 
deserted  the  Cabinet  of  Washington,  against  the  entreaties  of 
that  illustrious  man ;  and  having  got  into  a  private  station,  for 
this,  he  was  now  riggling  and  stretching  to  get  out  of  it.  To 
Mr.  Madison,  whose  powerful  aid  was  indispensable,  he  was  hold 
ing  out  his  hand  for  help. 

In  disparaging  and  traducing  Gen.  Washington  so  industrious 
ly,  his  intention  was  not  to  supplant  him ;  for  besides  that  he 
could  neither  have  desired  nor  hoped  to  compete  with  him  before 
the  people,  he  knew  the  General  was  now  in  his  second  and  last 
official  term.  But  his  design  was  by  curtailing  the  influence  of 
his  name  and  opinions,  to  change  the  course  of  succession,  which, 
should  that  influence  be  left  unimpaired,  the  sense  of  the  nation 
would  probably  give  to  the  Chief  Magistracy — devolving  it  first 
on  Adams,  whom  he  disliked,  next  on  Hamilton,  whom  he  hated  ; 
whose  superiority  in  the  Cabinet  he  had  felt  and  still  resented  ;* 

*  "  As  to  my  participating  in  the  administration,  if  by  that,  he  (Mr.  Adams) 
"  meant  tho  executive  Cabinet,  both  duty  and  inclination  will  shut  that  door 


Avhose  ready  eloquence,  cogent  reasoning,  practical  views,  ascen 
dant  genius,  martial  spirit,  and  generous  character,  rebuked  and 
foiled  his  own  subtle  sagacity,  pusillanimous  temper,  and  indirect 
ambition. 

As  it  was  to  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Madison  was  apprised  of 
Gen.  Washington's  wish  to  appoint  him  Secretary  of  State,  and 
for  that  and  other  reasons,  retained  a  degree  of  kindness  and 
respect  for  him,  there  was  room  to  apprehend  that  his  sense  of 
justice  would  revolt  at  the  gross  and  virulent  detraction,  which 
Mr.  Jefferson,  in  execution  of  one  part  of  his  scheme,  had  thought 
proper  to  hazard.  Therefore  as  physicians  expel  one  poison  from 
the  body,  by  the  introduction  of  a  more  energetic  one,  the  sage  of 
Monticello  proceeded  to  counteract  the  occurrence  of  remorse,  by 
means  of  those  never-failing  agents,  vanity  and  ambition.  While 
urging  Mr.  Madison  to  persevere  in  his  meritorious  opposition, 
and  foretelling  that  a  change  of  men  and  measures  was  soon  to 
take  place,  he  encroached  so  far  on  the  "  double  delicacy"  of  him 
self,  and  the  simple  modesty  of  his  friend,  as  to  insist  that  if  he 
does  retire,  it  must  only  be  "  to  a  more  splendid  and  a  more  effi 
cacious  post ;"  for  which,  by  the  way,  by  an  evolution  peculiar  to 
his  own  tactics,  he  had  himself  retired.  The  heartfelt  joy  this 
promotion  of  Mr.  Madison  over  his  own  head,  would  give  him, 
may  be  better  conceived  than  described  ;  steeped  as  he  lay  in  the 
charms  of  a  "  retirement,"  which  he  protests  he  "  would  not  give 
up  for  the  empire  of  the  universe." 

Nothing  could  be  more  skilful  than  this  move.  Like  that  of 
a  knight  at  chess  it  placed  in  check  King,  Queen  and  Castle,  all  at 
once.  It  told  the  opposition  that  it  was  time  to  bring  forward 
determinately  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  It  said  to  Mr. 
Madison,  "  as  I  have  proposed  you  for  this  post,  you  cannot  do 
less  than  support  me,  upon  that  principle  of  seniority*  and  civility, 
which  would  be  observed  were  we  to  come  together  at  the  en 
trance  of  a  drawing-room."  It  suppressed  any  scruples  that  gen- 

to  me.  I  cannot  have  a  wish  to  see  the  scenes  of  1793,  revived  as  to  myself, 
and  to  descend  daily  into  the  arena,  like  a  gladiator,  to  suffer  martyrdom  in 
every  conflict."— To  Mr.  Madison,  Jan.  22d,  1797.  (Vol.  3.  pp.  346,  347,) 

*  This  principle  of  seniority  is  most  carefully  impressed  on  Mr.  Madison, 
in  a  subsequent  letter  (p.  340.)  in  which,  on  finding  that  he  had  been  out 
voted  by  Mr.  Adams,  he  states  his  reasons  for  being  highly  delighted  with  his 
own  disappointment !  "  But  as  to  Mr.  Adams  particularly,  I  could  have  no 
feelings  that  would  revolt  at  being  placed  in  a  secondary  station  to  him.  I 
am  his  junior  in  life,  1  was  his  junior  in  Congress,  his  junior  in  the  diplo 
matic  line,  and  lately  his  junior  in  our  civil  government."  Every  shot  in  this 
volley  of  Juniors,  went  through  and  through  Mr.  Madison's  pretensions  to 
rivalship  or  precedence. 


60 

tleman  might  feel  at  entering  into  an  alliance  founded  on  injus 
tice  to  the  father  of  his  country,  by  overshadowing  his  judgment 
with  clouds  of  vain  incense  and  visions  of  future  greatness, 
through  which  Mr.  Jefferson's  election  could  not  but  appear  as 
previous  and  instrumental  to  his  own  elevation  ;  and  it  conform 
ed  apparently  with  that  rural  seclusion  which  the  artless  philo 
sopher,  loved  as  dearly  as  he  did  his  friend  Col.  Burr,  and  was  as 
willing  to  forsake. 

These  advantages  of  the  manoeuvre,  were  not  counterbalanced 
by  a  single  inconvenience.  There  was  not  the  slightest  chance 
of  Mr.  Madison's  superseding  him,  for  besides  that  he  was  a 
man  of  personal  modesty  and  of  comparatively  mild  ambition, 
Mr.  Jefferson,  was  entitled  by  pre-occupancy,  to  the  head  of  the 
opposition  ;  to  precedence,  by  superior  age,  and  the  high  diplo 
matic  and  executive  stations  he  had  filled,  to  the  duties  of  which 
Mr.  Madison  was  yet  a  stranger.  Had  it  been  in  his  wish  there 
fore  to  put  himself  before  Mr.  Jefferson,  it  would  not  have  been 
in  his  power.  Mr.  Madison's  situation  and  character  at  the  time, 
in  short,  render  it  a  moral  certainty,  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  profess 
ing  a  wish  to  see  his  election,  was  simply  an  expedient  to  pro 
mote  his  own. 

In  tracing  his  correspondence  up  to  the  19th  of  June,  1796, 
when  he  wrote  the  letter  in  vulgar  abuse  of  Gen.  Lee,  and  cruel 
humbug  of  Gen.  Washington,  I  shall  not  stop  to  notice  those  in 
which  he  exasperates  the  zeal  of  Mr.  Giles's  opposition  ;  encou 
rages  and  counsels  that  of  Mr.  Madison ;  hails  the  appearance 
of  an  inconsiderable  demagogue  in  Pennsylvania  as  "an  acqui 
sition  upon  which  he  congratulates  republicanism ;"  caricatures 
by  a  most  invidious  criticism  one  of  the  President's  messages  to 
Congress,  and  by  lecturing  Mr.  Rutledge  of  Carolina,  on  the 
debt  of  public  service  he  had  left  unpaid  to  the  nation  by  his  re 
tirement  from  political  life,  endeavours  to  provoke  a  reciprocation 
of  that  grateful  reproach. 

These  I  shall  pass  by,  as  subordinate  stratagems  in  his  grand 
design,  at  once  exposed  by  and  exposing  it,  in  order  to  examine 
his  strictures  on  the  next  in  succession  and  importance  of  Presi 
dent  Washington's  measures — the  treaty  of  amity,  commerce  and 
navigation,  concluded  with  the  government  of  Great  Britain, 
on  the  19th  of  November,  1794,  by  our  Envoy  Mr.  Jay. 

A  sketch  has  already  been  attempted  of  our  political  parties, 
from  their  rise  to  the  period  at  which  Mr.  Jefferson  took  his 
place  at  the  head  of  Gen.  Washington's  Cabinet.  And  it  was 
then  observed  that  occasions  very  soon  presented  themselves  for 
such  differences  of  opinion  as  were  likely  to  be  discovered  by 


61 

sects  so  oppositely  constituted.  But  in  the  nature  of  our  new 
relations  with  Great  Britain,  causes  of  peculiar  excitement  and 
discussion  were  found. 

Washington  and  the  great  body  of  his  political  friends  readily 
passed  from  real  war  to  genuine  peace,  in  conformity  with  the 
solemn  assurance  given  to  the  world  in  the  declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  that  the  Citizens  of  the  United  States  would  thence 
forth  hold  the  British  Nation,  like  the  rest  of  mankind,  "enemies 
in  war,  in  peace  friends."  This  promise  they  could  well  afford 
to  fulfil,  having  signalized  both  their  opposition  to  England, 
and  love  for  their  own  country,  their  impatience  of  tyranny  and 
devotion  to  freedom  in  the  painful  marches  and  bloody  conflicts 
of  a  seven  years'  war.  With  the  return  of  peace,  to  the  minds 
of  such  men  returned  the  sentiments  belonging  to  it — justice, 
moderation,  amity,  good  faith,  and  all  those  fair  dispositions  that 
lead  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  nations. 

When,  therefore,  from  the  unavoidable  delay  which  occurred 
on  our  par-t  in  executing  that  article  of  the  treaty  of  peace  which 
stipulated  for  the  payment  by  our  citizens  of  a  description  of 
debts  due  to  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  that  government  re 
fused  to  surrender,  in  conformity  with  conditions  in  the  same 
treaty,  certain  military  posts  on  the  southern  margin  of  the  great 
lakes,  they  used  their  utmost  exertions  to  have  our  side  of  the 
covenant  strictly  performed,  in  order  to  secure  the  right  depen 
dant  on  it.  In  the  same  temper  they  endeavoured  to  preserve 
an  exact  neutrality  in  the  war  between  France  and  England, 
and  preferred  negotiation  with  both  belligerents,  as  long  as  it 
could  be  honourably  maintained,  to  war  against  either,  as  the 
means  of  repairing  the  actual,  and  preventing  the  future  injury, 
to  which  our  commerce  was  exposed  by  their  collision. 

As  the  opposite  party  had  not  expended  their  animosity  in  the 
generous  trade  of  war,  much  of  it  remained  on  the  conclusion  of 
peace ;  and  as  they  had  not  been  able  to  demonstrate  their  zeal 
in  the  revolution  by  such  bold  and  patriotic  evidences,  as  Gen. 
Washington  and  his  followers  had  exhibited,  they  sought  now  to 
display  it  by  an  unseasonable  hostility  towards  Great  Britain.  In 
this  spirit  they  insinuated  that  the  endeavours  of  the  administra 
tion  to  execute  faithfully  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  to  establish  a 
commercial  intercourse  with  England,  manifested,  with  other  of 
their  measures,  a  monarchical  tendency  in  their  counsels,  if  not  a 
design  to  replace  us  under  the  dominion  of  the  British  Crown. 
To  colour  these  imputations  they  alledged  that  our  resistance  to 
the  encroachments  of  Prance  evinced  a  secret  partiality  for  Eng- 


62 

laud — inconsistent  with  the  gratitude  due  to  her  rival,  and  the 
sympathy  which  one  republic  ought  to /eel  for  another. 

Those  against  whom  these  accusations  were  directed,  did  not  fail, 
in  repelling  them,  to  assert  that  they  proceeded  from  politicians  un- 
duely  partial  to  France,  dishonourably  insensible  to  the  rights 
and  dignity  of  their  own  country,  and  willing  to  gratify  their  lust 
of  power,  at  the  expense  of  her  character  and  interest. 

It  thus  occurred  that  a  habit  was  engrafted  on  the  public 
mind  of  regarding  the  measures  of  Government  less  as  they 
affected  our  own  prosperity,  than  as  they  seemed  likely  to  bear 
upon  one  or  other  of  these  antagonist  nations— a  habit  which  by 
the  machinations  and  predominance  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  among 
other  consequences,  encouraged  that  fond  injustice  and  affectionate 
inferiority,  with  which,  in  a  more  or  less  insolent  shape,  we  have 
been  since  regarded  by  the  successive  governments  of  France. 

This  being  the  disposition  of  the  ins  and  outs — the  one  deter 
mined  to  condemn  any  connexion  with  Great  Britain  which  did 
not  secure,  not  only  all  our  rights  but  all  our  pretensions,  and  not 
only  all  that  we  pretended  to,  but  every  thing  that  we  wished  for — 
the  other  compelled  to  choose  between  the  calamity  of  a  war,  and 
the  convenience  of  the  best  agreement,  which,  under  existing 
circumstances  they  could  negotiate  ;  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
ratification  of  Jay's  treaty,  in  which  the  concessions  and  advan 
tages  of  the  contracting  powers,  were  pretty  equally  balanced, 
gave  occasion  to  much  discontent  and  violent  censure. 

In  inflaming  this  discontent  and  exacerbating  this  censure,  no 
one  took  more  pains  than  Mr.  Jefferson.  In  a  letter  to  Mann 
Page  (Vol.  3.  p.  314.)  declining  attendance  at  the  exhibition  of  a 
village  academy,  he  digresses  to  the  subject  of  the  treaty,  and 
takes  occasion  from  it  to  sneer  most  indecently  at  the  President. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison  on  the  next  page  (21st  Sept.,  1795.) 
urging  him  to  answer  a  piece  which  Hamilton  had  published  in 
explanation  of  the  advantages  of  the  treaty,  he  states  his  opinion 
of  it  in  the  following  words — "  It  certainly  is  an  attempt  of  a 
party,  who  find  they  have  lost  their  majority  in  one  branch  of  the 
legislature,  to  make  a  law  by  the  aid  of  the  other  branch,  and  of 
the  Executive,  under  colour  of  a  treaty,  which  shall  bind  up  the 
hands  of  the  adverse  branch,  from  ever  restraining  the  commerce 
of  their  patron  nation."  This  objection  implies,  not  that  any 
right  of  the  United  States  had  been  sacrificed  or  interest  neglect 
ed,  but  that  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain  was  not  to  be  re 
strained.  As  to  the  word  ever}  the  violence  of  its  misapplication 
can  be  conceived  only  by  reflecting  that  the  treaty  in  its  principal 
articles  was  limited  expressly  to  ten  years. 


63 

In  the  same  letter  he  tells  Mr.  Madison  that  a  number  of 
Hamilton's  pieces  had  been  sent  to  him,  with  an  answer  by  a  Mr. 
Beckley  ;  and  that  he  gave  these,  "  the  poison  and  the  antidote, 
to  honest  sound-hearted  men  of  common  understanding1/'  by  way 
of  experiment. — Finding  that  Hamilton's  pieces,  in  spite  of  Beck- 
ley's  answer,  produced  conviction  on  the  minds  of  these  honest 
common-sense  citizens,  he  adds  with  rare  simplicity,  "  1  have 
ceased  therefore  to  give  them" — showing  that  this  advocate  for 
the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  for  "  leaving  reason  free  to  combat 
error  of  opinion,"  had  no  scruple  in  suppressing  arguments  how 
ever  clear  and  convincing,  if  at  variance  with  his  own  interested 
views.  It  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Madison  could  be  induced  to 
enter  the  lists  in  this  controversy,  finding  it  probably  more  easy  to 
join  Mr.  Jefferson  in  reprobating  the  treaty,  than  to  oppose  Hamil 
ton's  logic  in  its  defence. 

After  writing  to  Mr.  Rutledge  of  Carolina,  (Vol.  3.  p.  317.)  "  I 
trust  the  popular  branch  of  the  Legislature  will  disapprove  of  it, 
and  thus  rid  us  of  this  infamous  act,  which  is  really  nothing  more 
than  a  treaty  of  alliance,  between  England  and  the  Anglomen 
of  this  country,  against  the  Legislature  and  people  of  the  Unitecl 
States" — to  Mr.  Monroe,  (p.  324.)  that  it  was  "a  case  palpably 
atrocious" — he  thus  pours  out,  in  a  letter  of  the  27th  March, 
1796,  to  Mr.  Madison,  then  in  his  seat  in  Congress,  the  full  tide 
of  his  maledictions,  upon  the  treaty  and  the  President,  (p.  324.) 
"  If  you  decide  in  favour  of  your  right  to  refuse  co-operation  in 
any  case  of  treaty,  I  should  wonder  on  what  occasion  it  is  to  be 
used,  if  not  in  one  where  the  rights,  the  interests,  the  honour  and 
faith  of  our  nation  are  so  grossly  sacrificed  ;  where  a  faction  has 
entered  into  a  conspiracy  with  the  enemies  of  their  country  to 
chain  down  the  Legislature  at  the  feet  of  both :  where  the  whole 
mass  of  your  constituents  have  condemned  the  work  in  the  most 
unequivocal  manner,  and  are  looking  to  you  as  their  last  hope  to 
save  them  from  the  effects  of  the  avarice  and  corruption  of  the 
first  agent,  the  revolutionary  machinations  of  others,  and  the  in 
comprehensible  acquiescence  of  the  only  honest  man,  who  has 
assented  to  it.  I  wish  ihat  his  honesty  and  his  political  errors, 
may  not  furnish  a  second  occasion  to  exclaim,  '  curse  on  his  vir 
tues,  they  have  undone  his  country.' " 

You  will  perceive  that  in  all  this  tirade,  not  a  single  argu 
ment  is  advanced  against  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  nor  a  soli 
tary  objection  specified  to  any  one  of  its  stipulations.  This  as 
piring  statesman  who  from  recent  correspondence  with  Mr.  Ham 
mond,  the  British  minister  in  the  United  States,  and  with  Mr. 
Pinckney  the  American  minister  in  London,  was  aware  of  the 


64 

difficulties  in  the  way  of  any  agreement  on  the  subject  of  our 
commercial  intercourse  with  England — who  had  himself  been 
frustrated  in  feeling  his  way  to  a  negotiation  in  regard  to  it  ;* 
now  when  a  convention  had  been  negotiated  by  a  gentleman  of 
acknowledged  abilities  and  patriotism,  and  ratified  by  the  consti 
tuted  authorities  of  the  country,  denounces  the  treaty,  abuses  its 
negotiator,  and  villifies  the  illustrious  citizen  who  sanctioned  it,  in 
all  directions  and  in  the  most  unqualified  terms,  without  favour 
ing  his  correspondents  or  his  country  with  a  single  tangible  ob 
jection  to  it.  Had  he  discovered  a  clause  of  mischievous  tendency, 
was  it  not  his  duty  to  point  it  out  to  the  President,  whom  he  ad 
mitted  to  be  an  honest  man.  or  to  the  people  who  he  knew  would 
be  prompt  and  fearless  in  maintaining  the  country's  character 
and  rights.  The  friendship  and  confidence  of  Washington  which 


*  In  an  official  letter  from  London,  he  thus  impresses  on  Mr.  Jay,  his 
opinion  of  the  difficulty  and  almost  impossibility  of  making  a  commercial 
treaty  of  any  description  with  England — and  perhaps  Mr.  Jay  was  indebted 
for  a  portion  of  this  acrimony  to  having  disappointed  the  following  positive 
and  prophetical  declarations.  (Vol.  2.  p.  4.)  "  With  this  country  nothing  is 
done,  and  that  nothing  is  intended  to  be  done,  on  their  part,  admits  not  of  the 
smallest  doubt.  The  nation  is  against  any  change  of  measures  :  the  minis 
ters  are  against  it ;  some  from  principle,  others  from  subserviency  :  and  the 
King,  more  than  all  men,  is  against  it.  If  we  take  a  retrospect  to  the  begin 
ning  of  this  reign,  we  observe,  that  amidst  all  the  changes  of  ministry,  no 
change  of  measures  with  respect  to  America  ever  took  place  ;  excepting  only 
at  the  moment  of  the  peace  ;  and  the  ministry  of  that  moment  was  immedi 
ately  removed.  Judging  of  the  future  by  the  past,  I  do  not  expect  a  change 
of  disposition  during  the  present  reign,  which  bids  fair  to  be  a  long  one,  as 
the  King  is  healthy  and  temperate.  That  he  is  persevering,  we  know.  If 
he  ever  changes  his  plan,  it  will  be  in  consequence  of  events,  which,  at  present, 
neither  himself  nor  his  ministers  place  among  those  which  are  probable. 
Even  the  opposition  dare  not  open  their  lips  in  favour  of  a  Convention  with 
us,  so  unpopular  would  be  the  topic.  It  is  not,  that  they  think  our  commerce 
unimportant  to  them.  I  find  that  the  merchants  have  set  sufficient  value  on 
it ;  but  they  are  sure  of  keeping  it  on  their  own  terms.  No  better  proof  can 
be  shown  of  the  security,  in  which  the  ministers  think  themselves,  on  this 
head,  than  that  they  have  not  thought  it  worth  while  to  give  us  a  conference 
on  the  subject,  though,  on  my  arrival,  we  exhibited  to  them  our  commission, 
observed  to  them  that  it  would  expire  on  the  12th  of  the  next  month,  and 
that  I  had  come  over  on  purpose  to  see,  if  any  arrangements  could  be  made 
before  that  time.  Of  two  months  which  then  remained,  six  weeks  have 
elapsed  without  one  scrip  of  a  pen,  or  one  word  from  a  minister,  except  a 
vague  proposition  at  an  accidental  meeting.  We  availed  ourselves  even  of 
that,  to  make  another  essay  to  extort  some  sort  of  declaration  from  the  court. 
But  their  silence  is  invincible."  With  these  emphatical  and  discouraging  as 
surances  in  his  pocket,  or  on  his  memory,  Mr.  Jay  must  have  thought  he 
would  receive  the  thanks  of  Mr.  Jefferson  for  bringing  about  a  commercial 
treaty  on  almost  any  terms  with  Great  Britain.  But  more  especially  had  ho 
a  right  to  count  on  these  thanks  as  his  was  the  best  commercial  treaty  \v<> 
have  ever  had  with  that  country — unless  Mr.  McLano's  late  treaty  be  nsi 
good  a  one. 


65 

he  still  enjoyed  required  this  of  him  as  a  man  of  honour — the 
offices  of  trust  and  dignity  to  which  the  people  had  elevated  him, 
required  this  of  him  as  a  good  citizen.  There  was  ample  time 
for  the  most  deliberate  counsel  to  the  President,  or  to  the  nation. 
The  treaty  though  received  by  the  government  on  the  7th  of 
March,  1795,  and  approved  by  the  Senate  on  the  24th  of  June, 
was  not  even  conditionally  ratified  by  the  President,  until  the 
12th  of  August,*  such  deep  and  anxious  meditation  did  that  wise 
and  virtuous  man  bestow  on  it.t 

But  to  exaggerate,  not  to  correct,  errors,  in  Washington's  ad 
ministration  was  Mr.  Jefferson's  object — and  of  course  as  he  knew 
him  to  be  an  honest  man,  it  would  have  been  in  total  opposition 
to  his  policy,  openly  to  warn  the  country  of  danger,  or  honestly  to 
guard  the  President  against  mistake.  Accordingly  he  preferred 
agitating  surreptitiously  the  popular  mind,  through  such  leaders 
of  public  opinion  as  were  disposed  to  second  his  schemes,  by  mis 
representations  of  motives  and  consequences — which  being,  these 
unborn,  and  those  invisible,  were  susceptible  of  the  most  violent 
and  licentious  distortion. 

By  the  treaty  which  is  here  so  vehemently  execrated,  we  ob 
tained  among  other  advantages,  the  cession  of  the  military  posts, 
south  of  the  Lakes,  and  the  consequent  power  of  repressing  the 
savage  hostilities,  which  were  annually  draining  us  of  blood  and 
treasure  ;  and  we  placed  our  commerce  with  Great  Britain  and 
her  colonies  on  a  footing  which  led  to  an  immediate  and  unparal 
leled  increase  of  our  trade,  tonnage  and  revenue. t 

It  is  true  Mr.  Jay  could  not  obtain  a  stipulation  against  impress 
ment.  But  were  he  and  Gen.  Washington  to  blame  for  this  ? 
As  he  wrote  to  the  President,  the  terms  were  the  best  he  could  ob 
tain—'  to  do  more  was  impossible.'  Were  they  to  have  declined 
such  terms,  because  one  or  two  points  were  left  unsettled,  and  thus 
deprive  the  country,  for  remote  or  unattainable  objects,  of  palpable 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  pp.  616,  17,  and  33. 

t  Washington  thus  decribes  in  a  letter  to  Gen.  Knox,  the  state  of  mind  un 
der  which  he  ratified  Jay's  treaty.  It  breathes  the  purest  patriotism  in  the 
most  earnest  language — "  If  any  person  on  earth  cduld,  or  the  great  power 
above  would,  erect  the  standard  of  infallibility  in  political  opinions,  no  being 
that  inhabits  this  terrestrial  globe  would  resort  to  it  with  more  eagerness  than 
myself,  so  long  as  I  remain  a  servant  of  the  public.  But  as  I  have  hitherto 
found  no  better  guide  than  upright  intentions  and  close  investigation,  I  shall 
adhere  to  them 'while  I  keep  the  watch  ;  leaving  it  to  those  who  will  come 
after  me,  to  explore  new  ways,  if  they  like  or  think  them  better." — Marshall, 
Vol.  6.  p.  635. 

^  See  Seyb«rt's  Statistics,  for  the  years  comprised  within  the  operation  of 
Jay's  Treaty. 

9 


66 

and  present  benefits.  Because  these  great  patriots  determined  to 
secure  the  advantages  within  their  reach,  and  to  leave  for  future 
settlement  the  subject  of  impressment,  «was  it  just  that  Washing 
ton  should  be  denounced  as  a  second  Caesar,  ready  to  cleave  to  the 
earth,  by  the  force  of  popular  virtues,  the  liberty  of  his  country  ; 
and  Jay  as  a  corrupt  tool  in  the  hands  of  a  foreign  government  ? 
Mr.  Monroe,  the  favourite  plenipotentiary  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  a  man 
he  avers  "  born  for  the  public" — a  saying  which  like  his  descrip 
tion  of  Mr.  Monroe's  integrity,  "  turned  inside  out,"  would  be 
found  true  ;  when  Jay's  treaty  expired,  signed  another  with  the 
British  Government  which  was  equally  defective  on  this  point. 
And  Mr.  Madison,  after  a  fortunate  and  successful  war,  ratified  a 
third  treaty  with  the  same  government,  which  was  likewise  desti 
tute  of  this  indispensable  stipulation. 

The  only  security  we  have  against  impressment,  we  owe  nei 
ther  to  JefTersonian  presidents  nor  ministers,  but  to  the  prowess 
and  patriotism  of  a  parcel  of  "  impudent  federal  bull-dogs" — to 
Hull,  Perry,  McDonough,  Bainbridge,  Stewart,  Biddle,  and  their 
rivals  in  glory,  who  with  the  remnant  of  the  federal  navy,  con 
vinced  the  British  nation  and  the  maritime  world,  that  it  would  be 
as  safe  to  search  the  boiling  crater  of  Vesuvius,  surmounted  by  its 
column  of  smoke  and  flame,  as  an  unarmed  vessel,  bearing  the 
Star-spangled  banner. 

In  the  left-handed  justice  and  interested  obloquy  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  Washington  and  Jay  were  guilty  of  sacrificing  "  the  rights,  the 
interest,  and  the  honour,  of  their  own  country"  by  failing  to  provide 
against  the  outrage  of  impressment,  in  the  early  infancy  of  our 
national  existence  ;  while  Mr.  Madison  for  neglecting  to  secure  it 
in  a  more  vigorous  period  of  our  growth,  fortified  as  he  was  by 
our  naval  triumphs,  our  success  at  Plattsburg,  our  brilliant  battles 
on  the  Niagara,  and  more  than  all,  by  Jackson's  splendid  defence 
of  New-Orleans,  is  entitled  to  the  praise  (V.  4.  p.  260)  of  having 
"  spared  to  the  pride  of  England  her  formal  acknowledgment  of 
the  atrocity  of  impressment  in  an  article  of  the  treaty."  Whoever 
approves  this  allotment  of  merit,  will  be  able  to  conceive,  that  in 
wisdom  and  patriotism,  Madison  and  Monroe,  were  greatly  supe 
rior  to  Jay  and  Washington. 

There  were  two  other  branches  of  Gen.  Washington's  policy, 
which,  within  the  interval  included  between  Mr.  Jefferson's  retire 
ment  from  the  Cabinet  and  the  date  of  the  letter  abusing  Gen. 
Lee,  and  even  previous  to  that  interval,  were  subjects  of  his  censure 
and  misrepresentation ;  for  with  him,  ethics  were  so  subservient 
to  politics,  that  in  regard  to  men  and  measures,  these  two  opera 
tion;?  were  uniformly  concurrent.  The  measures  alluded  to  were. 


67 

1st,  the  system  of  finance  suggested  by  Hamilton,  for  the  payment 
of  the  national  debt,  and  establishment  of  public  credit ;  and  2d, 
the  establishment  of  a  national  bank.  The  history  of  these  mea 
sures,  of  the  enlightened  and  patriotic  views  from  which  they  pro 
ceeded,  the  able  support  and  strenuous  opposition  of  which  they 
were  the  objects,  you  may  find  in  the  faithful  narration  of  Mar 
shall.* 

One  of  the  causes,  which,  by  demonstrating  its  necessity,  pro 
duced  our  present  federal  government,  was  the  fact  that  the  old 
confederation  possessed  no  faculty  of  providing  for  the  payment  of 
the  public  debt.  The  old  Congress  in  which  were  combined  inef 
ficiently,  legislative  and  executive  powers,  could  only  recommend 
to  the  States  measures  of  supply.  It  had  no  authority  either  to 
prescribe  or  enforce  those  measures.  The  consequence  of  this 
want  of  punctuality  and  defect  of  capacity,  was,  that  the  vouchers 
of  our  foreign  debt  had  greatly  depreciated,  and  that  those  of  our 
domestic  debt  had  fallen  almost  to  nothing.  ^The  disgrace  and 
injustice  involved  in  this  state  of  things,  made  so  deep  an  impres 
sion  on  the  nation,  that  the  first  Congress  under  the  new  Constitu 
tion,  deemed  it  their  duty  to  require,  by  a  resolution  of  the  21st 
September,  1789,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  report  a  plan 
for  the  redemption  of  the  public  debt  foreign  and  domestic  ;  an 
instruction,  which  on  the  ninth  of  the  succeeding  January  he 
complied  with. 

This  celebrated  report  pointed  out  sources  of  adequate  revenue 
to  be  pledged  by  Congress  for  the  annual  payment  of  the  interest, 
and  the  regular  redemption  of  the  principal,  of  the  whole  debt 
which  had  been  contracted  by  the  nation  in  their  struggle  for  in 
dependence,  whether  by  the  continental  Congress  or  by  the  seve 
ral  States.  When  it  came  to  be  considered  by  the  Legislature,  it 
encountered  various  objections,  honestly,  no  doubt,  as  .they  were 
certainly  eloquently,  urged.  Some  members  objected  to  funding 
systems  generally,  and  to  withdrawing  by  a  permanent  appropria 
tion,  from  the  management  of  Congress  any  of  the  legitimate  ob 
jects  of  taxation.  Others  proposed  that  with  respect  to  the  do 
mestic  creditor  he  should  only  be  paid  the  market  price  of  the 
government  paper — that  is  about  twelve  dollars  in  every  hundred. 
Mr.  Madison  contended  that  a  discrimination  should  be  made 
between  the  original  and  the  actual  holder  of  the  paper,  paying  to 
the  latter  the  highest  price  it  had  borne  in  the  course  of  its  trans 
fer,  and  to  the  former  the  difference  between  that  and  its  nominal 
value — or  the  complement  of  this  value — and  of  consequence, 

^ 

*  V.  5.  oh.  4. 


68 

where  the  original  was  the  actual  holder,  the  full  amount  it  repre 
sented.  But  the  strongest  opposition  was  directed  against  that 
section  of  the  report,  which  included  in  the  assumption  the  debts 
created  by  the  States. 

The  objection  to  the  plan  of  the  Secretary,  on  the  score  of  its 
introducing  a  funding  system,  found  little  support,  and  was  quietly 
disposed  of.  The  proposition  to  reduce  the  amount  of  debt,  by 
availing  the  nation  of  the  self-created  depreciation  of  its  own  pa 
per,  was  defeated  by  arguments  drawn  from  its  injustice,  and 
from  the  bad  effect  it  would  have  on  the  system  of  public  credit, 
which  it  was  the  object  of  the  resolution  of  Congress  and  the  re 
port  of  the  Secretary,  to  establish.  Mr.  Madison's  motion  to  dis 
criminate  between  the  actual  and  original  holders,  from  the  elo 
quence  and  ingenuity  with  which  he  supported  it,  and  from  the 
specious  idea  it  included  of  a  remedial  intervention  against  extor 
tion,  excited  an  animated  and  protracted  discussion.  But  the  fal 
lacious  equity  on  wjiich  it  was  founded,  attended  as  it  was  by  the 
despotic  heresy  of  meddling  with  private  contracts,  and  by  the  cer 
tainty  that  it  would  neither  advance  the  credit  nor  reduce  the 
debt  of  the  nation,  were  ably  exposed,  and  the  proposition  was 
lost  by  a  large  majority. 

Arguments  in  opposition  to  the  assumption  of  the  State  debts 
were  derived  from  the  great  augmentation  it  would  cause  to  that, 
which  might  be  considered  proper  to  the  United  States — an  incon 
venience  which  though  momentous  in  itself,  would  have  the 
more  formidable  consequence  of  creating  such  a  host  of  depend 
ents  oil  the  general  government,  and  of  setting  in  motion  the 
power  of  taxation  on  so  large  a  scale  as  to  endanger  the  indepen 
dence  of  the  States.  It  was  alleged  that  the  Constitution  did  not 
authorise  this  exercise  of  fiscal  power,  and  that  no  occasion  ex 
isted  for  it,  inasmuch  as  the  several  States  were  competent  to  the 
discharge  of  their  own  engagements.  The  difficulty  of  distin 
guishing  between  the  liabilities  they  had  incurred  for  their  own 
local  defence,  and  those  which  had  arisen  from  their  exertions  in 
the  common  cause,  was  relied  on,  as  was  the  injustice  of  con 
founding  in  a  common  operation  engagements  dissimilar  in  cha 
racter  and  unequal  in  magnitude.  This  indefinite  increase  of 
the  debt,  (for  the  amount  of  the  State  debts  was  not  yet  ascer 
tained)  it  was  urged  would  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  public  credit, 
by  creating  an  apprehension  that  the  national  resources  would  not 
be  adequate  to  its  punctual  liquidation — a  circumstance  which 
could  not  fail  to  depreciate  the  paper  representing  it,  nor  to  per 
petuate  that  greatest  of  national  evils,  a  public  debt. 


69 

• 

In  support  of  the  assumption  it  was  replied  that  the  whole 
debt,  both  that  contracted  by  the  continental  Congress,  and  that 
for  which  the  several  States  were  answerable,  had  been  incurred 
in  a  cause  common  to  the  Union — that  in  no  case  had  the  ordi 
nary  expenses,  or  civil  list,  of  the  States,  exceeded  their  ordinary 
revenues ;  and  that  their  debts  consequently  represented  the 
amount  of  service  they  had  severally  contributed  to  the  general 
defence — that  in  these  operations  the  States  were  virtually  the 
agents  of  the  general  government,  which  upon  principles  of  ob 
vious  justice,  was  liable  to  the  State  creditors — that  the  assumption 
was  not,  as  it  had  been  described,  the  prodigal  creation  of  a  new 
debt,  but  the  honest  acknowledgment  of  an  old  one — that  if  it 
could  not  be  denied  that  Congress  had  the  right  to  create  a  debt 
in  the  prosecution  of  a  second  war,  it  could  not  well  be  disputed 
that  they  were  authorised  to  discharge  the  debt  contracted  in  the 
first ;  that  the  question  was  one  not  of  quantity,  but  of  principle  ; 
and  consequently  was  not  affected  by  the  circumstance  of  the 
State  debts  having  not  yet  been  accurately  computed. 

A  multitude  of  tax-masters  would,  it  was  said,  lead  to  waste  in 
the  collection,  as  a  variety  of  paymasters  would,  to  waste  in  the 
distribution  of  funds  out  of  which  these  debts  were  to  be  satisfied, 
and  which  in  either  mode  must  be  drawn  ultimately  from  the 
people.  Inequality  would  exist  and  unfairness  be  suspected  both 
in  their  collection  and  disbursement ;  circumstances  which  while 
they  would  not  alleviate  the  general  pressure  on  the  people,  would 
leave  many  of  the  public  creditors  dissatisfied.  It  was  said  to  be 
absurd  to  impute  to  the  supporters  of  this  measure,  a  desire  to 
perpetuate  the  public  debt,  as  the  proposition  was  not  to  contract 
a  debt,  but  to  pay  one,  and  that  moreover  as  the  express  object  of 
the  assumption  was  to  discharge  the  debt,  it  was  inconsistent  with 
common  sense  to  attach  to  it  the  opposite  purpose  of  perpetuating 
it.  It  was  urged  that  the  apprehension  of  its  giving  undue  influ 
ence  to  the  general  government  was  at  variance  with  the  objection 
that  it  would  give  perpetuity  to  the  debt — for  this  influence  must 
be  the  result  of  credit,  which  could  not  exist  unless  the  debt  was 
regularly  liquidated.  And  it  was  contended  that  the  assumption, 
while  it  would  quiet  a  large  body  of  citizens,  would  put  an  end 
to  that  speculation  which  was  so  anxiously  deprecated. 

These  were  the  principal  arguments  advanced  in  the  debate,  as 
it  was  reported  in  the  journals  of  the  day  and  is  condensed  in  the 
History  of  Marshall ;  and  they  are  here  recapitulated  in  order  that 
you  may  judge  whether  on  the  part  of  the  supporters  of  the  as 
sumption,  there  appears  any  thing  like  a  design  to  convert  our  re 
public  into  a  monarchy.  No  such  design  was  imputed  to  them 


70 

in  the  discussion  ;  and  the  accusation  seems  to  have  been  first 
propagated,  as  it  was  last  repeated  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  vilifier 
general  of  the  friends  and  measures  of  Washington  ;  predicting  of 
these,  the  most  pernicious  consequences  ;  and  ascribing  to  those, 
the  worst  conceivable  motives.  Two  features  in  the  measure  al 
luded  to — one  that  no  discrimination  w&s  made  between  the  first 
and  last  holder  of  the  public  paper — the  other,  that  the  debts  in 
curred  by  the  several  States,  in  a  war  undertaken  by  common 
consent  and  prosecuted  in  common  defence,  were  put  on  the  same 
footing  with  those  contracted  by  the  general  government — were 
made  the  occasion  of  his  charge  upon  Hamilton  especially  and  the 
political  supporters  of  Washington  generally,  of  a  design  to  sub 
vert  our  republican  institutions,  and  to  establish  a  monarchy  on 
their  ruins. 

This  calumny  which  he  specifies  (Y.  4.  p.  145.  et  passim.)  as, 
"  a  longing  for  a  King,  and  an  English  King,  rather  than  any 
other" — he  invented  in  1791,  when  the  wounds  received  by  these 
valiant  patriots  in  liberating  us  from  an  English  King,  were  yet 
fresh  and  bleeding — and  maintained  until  the  day  of  his  death  in 
1826,  with  an  evergreen  vivacity  of  slander,  which  drew  rancour 
from  the  frosts  of  age,  and  spread  forth  its  poisonous  branches,  as 
the  graves  of  its  victims  thickened  around.  To  every  age,  and 
through  every  State,  it  was  distributed  by  his  correspondence. 
The  credulity  of  the  young,  the  prejudices  of  the  old,  and  the  in 
terests  of  both,  were  enlisted  in  its  circulation  ;  and  not  content 
with  defaming  the  ornaments  of  his  country  at  home,  he  indus 
triously  proclaimed  this  calumny  abroad.  La  Fayette  and  Kos- 
ciusko  were  assured  that  their  chosen  friends  in  the  United  States 
had  been  defeated  in  an  attempt  to  undermine  the  liberties  of  their 
country  ;  and  Mazzei,  an  Italian  adventurer,  was  made  the  in 
strument  as  you  will  see  of  diffusing  the  falsehood  throughout 
Europe. 


LETTER  V. 

OF  a  charge  so  extensively  circulated  and  so  long  maintained, 
as  that  alluded  to  in  the  close  of  my  last  letter,  it  is  worth  while 
to  examine  the  foundation,  especially  as  the  station  of  its  author 
and  the  character  of  its  objects,  both  tend  to  give  it  importance ; 
and  as  on  its  truth  or  falsehood,  the  moral  colouring  of  our  national 
history  must  greatly  depend. 

By  reference  to  the  Anas,  at  the  end  of  his  fourth  volume,  it 


71 

appears  that  in  the  year  1818,  Mr.  Jefferson  revised  all  the  impu 
tations  he  had  made  or  collected  against  this  illustrious  body  of 
his  countrymen,  arid  therein  it  will  be  found  he  repeats,  in  the 
most  imposing  form  he  could  give  it,  this  particular  slander.  (447, 
8,  9.)  In  regard  to  the  former  branch  of  it,  the  making  no  dis 
crimination  between  the  first  and  last  holders  of  government 
stock,  he  affirms  that  it  was  a  stratagem  devised  by  Hamilton  to 
gratify  speculators,  and  to  attach  to  himself  a  band  of  mercenary 
supporters  who  were  to  be  his  instruments  in  overturning  the  re 
public.  In  proof  of  this  affirmation  he  proceeds  as  follows — 
"  When  the  trial  of  strength  on  these  several  efforts,  had  indicated 
the  form  in  which  the  bill  would  finally  pass,  this  being  known 
within  doors  sooner  than  without,  and  especially  than  to  those 
who  were  in  distant  parts  of  the  Union,  the  base  scramble  began. 
Couriers  and  relay  horses  by  land,  and  swift-sailing  pilot  boats  by 
sea,  were  flying  in  all  directions.  Active  partners  and  agents 
were  associated  and  employed  in  every  State,  town  and  country 
neighbourhood,  and  this  paper  was  bought  up  at  five  shillings, 
and  even  as  low  as  two  shillings  in  the  pound,  before  the  holder 
knew  that  Congress  had  already  provided  for  its  redemption  at 
par.  Immense  sums  were  filched  from  the  poor  and  ignorant, 
and  fortunes  accumulated  by  those  who  had  themselves  been  poor 
enough  before.  Men  thus  enriched  by  the  dexterity  of  a  leader, 
would  follow  of  course,  the  chief  who  was  leading  them  to  for 
tune,  and  become  the  zealous  instruments  of  all  his  enterprises." 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  among  the  principal  objects  of  re 
constructing  the  form  of  the  federal  government  was  that  of 
enabling  the  people  of  the  United  States,  to  discharge  the  debt 
they  had  contracted  in  the  war  of  Independence  ;*  that  the  initiation 
of  a  plan  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  object  was  imposed,  both 
by  the  nature  of  his  office  and  a  resolution  of  Congress,  on  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  and  does  it  seem  consistent  with  com 
mon  justice,  to  impute  to  currupt  motives,  to  motives  that  would 
have  made  a  Catiline  or  an  Arnold  blush,  any  speculative  ill  con 
sequences  that  might  be  predicated  of  a  system  thus  exacted, 
which  was  original  in  its  theory,  and  complex  in  its  effects  ?  Can 
any  man  of  sense,  who  with  the  greatest  possible  admiration  for 
Mr.  Jefferson,  retains  the  smallest  respect  for  justice,  approve  the 
illiberal  construction  he  puts  on  the  labours  of  a  colleague,  whose 
patriotism  had  been  long  and  meritoriously  displayed ;  or  upon 
the  character  of  those  able  men,  who  concurred  in  his  views,  or 

*  See  Gen.  Washington's  letter  to  the  governors  of  the  several  States. 

[Marshall,  frl.  5.  p.  4S.] 


72 

were  convinced  by  his  arguments'.2  Was  it  not  natural,  nay 
almost  inevitable,  that  some  errors  should  either  be  discovered  or 
suspected,  in  any  plan  that  could  have  been  proposed  ;  and  was 
it  the  part  of  a  wise  or  an  honest  man,  to  ascribe  them,  not  to  the 
imperfection  of  reason,  but  to  treasonable  intentions  ;  to  lay  in 
wait,  while  Hamilton  was  tasking  the  powers  of  his  creative  mind, 
in  order  to  discharge  an  important  duty,  that  he  might  denounce 
appearances  of  error,  as  evidences  of  guilt. 

As  it  is  morally  impossible  to  look  upon  such  a  proceeding 
without  that  indignation  which  the  foulest  injustice  excites,  so  it 
is  beyond  the  compass  of  human  credulity  to  believe  that  a  man 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  understanding,  really  entertained  the  suspicions 
he  expressed  on  this  subject.  Besides  their  incongruity  with  the 
characters  of  the  men  on  whom  they  bear,  the  chain  of  inference 
by  which  they  are  attempted  to  be  upheld,  is  too  lax  and  absurd 
to  be  conscientiously  relied  on  by  any  reflecting  mind.  The 
mere  fact  of  rejecting  the  discrimination  is  made  proof  of  corrup 
tion,  in  the  enlightened  statesman  who  carried  that  rejection. 
But  were  there  not  on  the  very  surface  of  that  proposition  fair  and 
forcible  objections  to  it  ?  Would  it  not  have  interfered  violently 
with  private  contracts,  placed  the  government  despotically  between 
the  buyer  and  the  seller,  been  in  the  nature  of  an  ex-post-facto 
Law,  and  converted  the  transaction,  arbitrarily,  from  a  purchase 
into  a  loan  ;  wresting  from  the  purchaser  the  result  of  his  risk, 
the  degree  of  which  was  represented  by  the  depreciation  of  the 
paper  1  Would  not  such  a  plan,  independently  of  its  repugnance 
to  our  system  of  laws,  and  habits  of  dealing ;  its  inconvenience 
and  almost  impracticability,  have  been  in  the  teeth  of  a  maxim 
of  trade  that  was  admitted  before  Mr.  Jefferson's  time  ? 

"  The  real  value  of  a  thing, 

Is  just  as  much  as  it  will  bring." 

Again. — The  facts  by  which  he  attempts  to  corroborate  this 
odious  inference,  if  admitted,  really  destroy  it ;  rendering  his 
argument  as  vicious  as  his  calumny.  If  we  believe  him,  when 
the  supporters  of  Hamilton's  system,  discovered  that  the  bill  would 
pass  without  the  discriminating  clause  they  despatched  couriers, 
expresses,  and  swift-sailing  packets,  to  every  State,  town,  and 
county  in  the  Union ;  devoured  the  roads,  and  vexed  the  seas  ; 
associated  partners  and  employed  agents,  in  every  neighbourhood, 
in  order  to  buy  up  this  paper  at  a  great  discount.  This  operation 
must  have  created  instantaneously,  a  general  and  pressing  demand 
for  it,  and  have  raised  its  price  to  the  level  of  that  demand.  In 
the  nature  of  things,  the  speculation,  consequently,  must  either 


73 

have  been  inconsiderable  in  extent,  or  inconsiderable  in  profit ; 
so  that  if  it  be  possible  to  sympathise  with  his  Irish  outcry  against 
those  cruel  and  ingenious  federalists,  who  discovered  the  mode  of 
"  filching  immense  fortunes  from  the  poor,"  it -will  be  difficult  not 
to  perceive  the  injustice  of  his  accusation  through  the  fallacy  of 
his  reasoning. 

Besides  he  and  his  friends  in  Congress  had  a  newspaper  at  their 
command  ;  through  its  columns,  and  by  private  letters,  they 
could  have  apprised  the  public  of  the  progress  and  probable  event 
of  the  bill.  That  they  did  not  do  so,  places  Mr.  Jefferson  at  least 
in  the  dilemma,  of  having  either  perceived  no  ground  for  his  im 
putation,  or  of  being  subject  to  the  suspicion  which  he  erects  uponit. 

To  reinforce  this  charge  of  a  design  in  Hamilton  to  establish  a 
monarchy  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Constitution,  and  of  a  corrupt 
instrumentality  in  it,  on  the  part  of  the  other  leading  friends  of 
Gen.  Washington,  he  adduces  with  equal  confidence,  the  assump 
tion  of  the  State  debts.  It  being  unnecessary  to  discuss  an  obvious 
absurdky :  I  beg  to  remind  you  that  I  confine  my  remarks  to  the 
object  of  proving  the  impossibility  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  believing  his 
own  accusations.  In  this  case,  he  knew  that  it  had  been  demon 
strated,  and  was  at  all  times  and  places  demonstrable,  that  the 
debts  of  the  States  had  been  contracted  for  national  purposes  ;  that 
the  greater  the  debt  of  any  particular  State,  the  greater  had  been 
its  exertion,  and  exposure  in  the  common  cause ;  and  that  the 
principles  of  agency,  applied  in  favour  of  the  States.  This  reason 
ing  was  not  only  conclusive  to  his  judgment,  but  the  equity  of  it, 
was  familiar  to  his  memory,  as  appears  from  the  following  letter, 
of  the  15th  December,  1780  ;  which,  when  governor  of  Virginia, 
he  wrote  to  Gen.  Washington.  (Vol.  1.  pp.  198,  199.) 

"  From  intelligence  received,  \ve  have  reason  to  expect  that  a 
confederacy  of  British  and  Indians,  to  the  amount  of  two  thou 
sand  men,  is  formed,  for  the  purpose  of  spreading  destruction  and 
dismay,  through  the  whole  extent  of  our  frontier,  in  the  ensuing 
spring.  Should  this  take  place,  we  shall  certainly  lose  in  the 
south,  all  the  aids  of  militia  from  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  besides 
the  inhabitants  who  must  fall  a  sacrifice  in  the  course  of  the 
savage  irruptions.  There  seems  to  be  but  one  method  of  pre 
venting  this,  which  is,  to  give  the  western  enemy  employment  in 
their  own  country.  The  regular  force  Col.  Clarke  already  has, 
with  a  proper  draft  from  the  militia  beyond  the  Alleghany,  and 
that  of  three  or  four  of  our  most  northern  counties,  will  be  ade 
quate  to  the  reduction  of  Fort  Detroit,  in  the  opinion  of  Col.  Clarke  ; 
and  he  assigns  the  most  probable  reasons  for  that  opinion.  We 
have,  therefore,  determined  to  undertake  it,  and  commit  it  to  his 

10 


74 

direction.  Whether  the  expense  of  the  enterprise  shall  be  de 
frayed  by  the  Continent  or  State,  we  ivill  leave  to  be  decided 
hereafter,  by  Congress,  in  whose  justice  we  can  confide,  as  to 
the  determination"  This  extract  covers  every  point  in  the 
assumption  ;  shows  the  general  advantage  resulting  from  the 
enterprises  of  individual  States;  and  tke  recognized  equity  of 
charging  their  pecuniary  expence  to  the  Union.  As  Hamilton's 
report  was  necessarily  submitted  to  the  President,  and  referred  to 
the  Cabinet,  before  it  was  transmitted  to  Congress,  there  is  abun 
dant  reason  to  believe,  that  this  very  claim  of  Virginia  furnished 
one  of  the  motives  which  determined  the  mind  of  the  Executive, 
both  in  the  formation  and  sanction  of  this  financial  measure ;  and 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  here  censures  as  corrupt  and  treasonable,  a 
proceeding,  which  he  had  proposed  as  governor  of  Virginia,  and 
approved  as  Secretary  of  State. 

It  is  useless  to  pursue  any  farther  his  absurdities  and  injustice 
in  regard  to  this  fair  and  beneficial  measure,  by  referring  to  the 
assumption  of  the  State  debts,  growing  out  of  the  late  war,  or  to 
his  zeal  in  favour  of  securing  that  of  Virginia.  (Vol.  4.  p.  411.) 
But  it  is  wonderful  to  think  what  a  superstructure  of  popularity- 
giving  slander  he  reared*on  them.  Like  the  Arabian  impostor, 
he  seems  to  have  determined  to  storm  the  understanding  of  his 
followers,  by  the  boldness  of  his  leading  fictions  ;  so  that,  when 
once  the  gates  of  doubt  were  forced  open,  entrance  for  all  future 
fallacies  was  secure.  Their  zeal  was  completely  enlisted  as  soon 
as  they  were  brought  to  believe  that  his  opponents  were  necessari 
ly  enemies  of  freedom.  And  this  infatuation,  which  opened  a 
spacious  avenue  for  countless  and  cruel  suspicions — 

"  That  with  extended  wings,  a  bannered  host, 
Under  spread  ensigns  marching,  might  pass  through, 
With  horse  and  chariots  ranked  in  loose  array," 

was  strengthened  by  the  consideration,  that  in  consequence  of 
dividing  the  country  into  two  castes,  the  worthy,  and  the  unwor 
thy  of  office,  the  fund  of  emolument  and  place,  with  which  to 
reward  his  proselytes  would  be  augmented.  It  followed,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  that  the  fame  and  popularity  of  Washington 
were  overshadowed  by  that  of  Jefferson  ;  that  Hamilton,  Jay, 
Marshall,  and  Knox,  gave  place  in  public  estimation,  to  Madison, 
Monroe,  Gallatin  and  Dearborne ;  that  men  of  all  classes,  especial 
ly  the  revolutionary  officers,  who  retained  or  expressed  veneration 
for  the  father  of  their  country,  were  denounced  as  traitors,  stigma 
tised  as  Englishmen,  and  declared  unfit  for  any  public  trust ;  and 


75 

that  the  eastern  States,  Massachusetts  particularly,  "  the  cradle  of 
the  revolution,"  were  pronounced  to  be  British  Provinces.* 

At  length  when  Mr.  Jefferson's  peculiar  calumnies  were  likely 
to  lose  force  by  repetition,  a  market  for  new  ones  was  opened. 
This,  getting  wind,  it  was  soon  scented  by  the  office-and-salary- 
loving  John  Quincy  Adams.  He  immediately  prepared  a  bun 
dle  of  treasons  and  carried  them  under  his  cloak  to  the  Presi 
dent,  to  catch  whose  eye  he  labelled  one  in  large  letters  HAMIL 
TON.  The  President  (Jefferson)  says  (Yol.  4.  p.  419.)  he  re 
ceived  them  with  "  awe,"  and  the  informer  no  doubt  presented 
them  with  solemnity.  The  substance  of  the  transaction  that 
ensued  was  that  "  for  and  in  consideration  "  of  Mr.  Adam's  as 
serting  that  the  leading  men  of  his  own  State,  with  whom  he 
and  his  father  had  long  been  associated  in  habits  of  personal  and 
political  friendship,  were  engaged,  originally  under  the  auspices 
of  Alexander  Hamilton,  in  forming  a  treasonable  connexion 
with  England,  he  was  declared  upon  sufficient  authorit}T  to  be  to 
all  intents  and  purposes,  a  Jeffersonian  Republican,  to  be  worthy 
of  the  President's  confidence,  and  of  public  office — was  made 
first,  the  leader  of  the  administration  party  in  the  Senate,  next 
Minister  to  Russia,  and  in  due  time  to  London. 

His  speculation  turning  out  so  well,  Henry,  an  Irish  adventu 
rer,  in  connexion  with  a  French  impostor  who  styled  himself 


*  Speaking  of  the  Federalists  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to 
Gen.  Dearborne,  in  August,  1811,  (Vol.  4.  p.  166.)  as  follows :  "  Tell  my  old 
friend,  governor  Gerry,  that  I  give  him  glory  for  the  rasping,  with  which  he 
rubbed  down  his  herd  of  traitors.  Let  them  have  justice,  and  protection 
against  personal  violence,  but  no  favour.'  Powers  and  pre-eminences  con 
ferred  on  them,  are  daggers  put  into  the  hands  of  assassins,  to  be  plunged 
into  our  own  bosoms,  the  moment  the  thrust  can  go  home  to  the  heart. 
Moderation  can  neverreclaim  them.  They  deem  it  timidity,  and  despise  with 
out  fearing  the  tameness  from  which  it  flows.  Backed  by  England,  they 
never  lose  the  hope  that  their  day  is  to  come,  when  the  terrorism  of  their  earlier 
power  is  to  be  merged  in  the  more  gratifying  system  of  deportation  and  the 
guillotine.  Being  now  *  horsde  combat''  myself,  I  resign  these  cares  to  others." 

The  ferocity  of  these  sentiments  is  equalled  only  by  the  vulgarity  of  the 
language,  and  the  tyrannical  temper  which  they  disclose.  To  the  freemen  of 
a  sister  State,  whose  rights  were  ascertained  and  consecrated  by  laws  of  their 
own  making,  and  who  contributed  both  to  the  emolument  and  the  digni 
ty  of  the  high  office,  which  for  eight  years  he  had  filled,  he  advises  governor 
Gerry,  and  Gen.  Dearborne,  to  grant  justice,  and  protection  against  personal 
violence.  That  is,  do  not  mob  or  murder  them ;  do  not  take  away  violently  their 
property  or  their  lives,  as  our  friends  in  Baltimore  have  been  doing,  and  counte 
nancing  lately. 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  determine  whether  it  was  more  disgraceful  to  have 
perpetrated  the  writing,  or  accepted  the  intimacy,  or  provoked  the  praise  of 
this  letter  ;  which  separated  from  the  names  attached  to  it,  might  be  mistaken 
for  the  brutal  and  frantic  ribaldry  of  one  West  India  slave  driver  to  another. 


76 

Le  Comte  de  Crillon,  repaired  to  Washington  about  the  be 
ginning  of  the  last  war,  and  informed  the  President  (Madison) 
that  the  same  federalists  of  Massachusetts  had]  not  quite  com 
pleted  their  traitorous  alliance  with  England,  out  were  at  that 
moment  engaged  in  negotiating  through  him  with  the  Canadian 
and  British  governments.  Notwithstanding  that  Henry's  disclo 
sure  bore  a  mercenary  braild  on  its  front,  and  that  the  French 
minister  refused  to  receive  the  soi-disant  Count,  our  President 
received  and  entertained  the  Count  at  least  ;and  Henry  modestly 
preferring  cash  to  office,  was  paid  out  of  funds  belonging  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  fifty  thousand  dollars,  for  a  slander 
on  a  part  of  them,  which  slander  Mr.  John  Q,.  Adams  had  sold 
before. 

Incidental  to  Hamilton's  system  of  finance,  was,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  a  proposition  to  establish  a  National  Bank  which  was 
opposed  by  Mr.  Madison  as  unconstitutional  ;*  and  reprobated  by 
Mr.  JefTerson  as  a  part  of  Hamilton's  monarchical  scheme.  I 
notice  this  merely  to  refer  to  the  well-known  fact  that  after  Mr. 
Madison  became  President  he  approved  a  law  for  the  establish 
ment  of  a  National  Bank  on  similar  principles,  and  with  a  capital 
of  thirty  instead  of  ten  millions  of  dollars.  With  equal  incon 
sistency  Mr.  Jefferson  who  denied,  throughout,  the  constitutional 
power  of  the  General  Government  to  construct  a  road  or  canal 
through  either  or  any  of  the  States,  sanctioned  as  President,  a  law 
for  the  construction  of  the  Cumberland  road,  which  runs  through 
the  territory  of  three  States. 

In  relation  to  fiscal  measures,  and  the  funding  system  particu 
larly,  his  opinions  were  equally  contradictory,  proceeding  always 
from  the  veering  suggestions  of  interest,  and  never  from  the'stea- 
dy  influence  of  principle.  In  1798,  when  he  was  endeavouring 
to  supplant  President  Adams,  by  whose  administration  upon  the 
apprehension  of  a  war  with  France,  a  small  loan  was  contracted, 
he  wrote  to  Col.  Taylor,  (Vol.  3.  p.  404.)  "  I  wish  it  were  pos 
sible  to  obtain  a  single  amendment  to  the  Constitution.  I  would 
be  willing  to  depend  on  that  alone  for  the  reduction  of  the  adminis 
tration  of  our  government  to  the  general  principles  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  I  mean  an  additional  article  taking  from  the  federal  govern 
ment  the  power  of  borrowing."  In  1815  he  writes  to  Mr.  Monroe, 
"  We  seem  equally  incorrigible  in  our  financial  course.  Although 
a  century  of  British  experience  has  proved  to  what  a  wonderful 
extent  the  funding,  or  specific  redeeming,  taxes  enables  a  govern 
ment  to  anticipate  in  Avar  the  resources  of  peace,  and  although 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  p.  294. 


77 

the  other  nations  of  Europe  have  tried  and  trodden  every  path  of 
force  or  folly  in  fruitless  quest  of  the  same  object,  yet  we  still 
expect  to  find  in  juggling  tricks  and  banking  dreams,  that  mo 
ney  can  be  made  out  of  nothing,  and  in  sufficient  quantity  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  a  war  by  sea  and  land.  It  is  said  indeed  that 
money  cannot  be  borrowed  from  our  merchants  as  from  those 
of  England.  But  it  can  be  borrowed  from  our  people.  They 
will  give  you  all  the  necessaries  of  war  they  produce,  if  instead 
of  the  bankrupt  trash  they  now  are  obliged  to  receive  for  want 
of  any  other,  you  will  give  them  a  paper  promise,  founded  on 
a  specific  pledge,  and  of  a  size  fitted  for  circulation."*  Now  I 
am  far  from  denying  the  propriety  of  any  man's  changing  his 
opinions  whenever  experience  or  reflection  shall  convince  him  of 
their  error,  whether  it  be  in  the  art  of  healing  or  destroying,  or 
governing  men,  whether  the  man  be  a  physician,  a  general,  or  a 
statesman.  But  assuredly,  if  in  this  process  he  adopts  an  opinion, 
which,  when  advanced  by  others  he  had  declared  to  be  fraught 
with  public  injury  and  demonstrative  of  atrocious  designs,  he 
ought  either  to  retract  the  imputation,  or  to  confess  the  justice  of 
its  application  to  himself.  Neither  of  these  manly  steps  was 
taken  by  the  statesmen  in  question ;  one  preserving  silence, 
the  other  persisting  in  abuse. 

There  are  other  of  Mr  Jefferson's  letters  recognising  the  right 
and  prudence  of  the  funding  system,  in  regard  to  the  financial 
emergencies  of  our  .federal  government,  as  for  example  (Vol.  2. 
p.  383.)  to  Mr.  Madison.  But  the  most  characteristic  of  the 
fiscal  rhapsodies,  with  which  his  volumes  abound,  is  in  a  letter 
to  the  same  fraternal  politician  and  correspondent,  (Vol.  3.  p.  27.) 
proving  as  its  author  affirms,  that  one  generation  of  men,  has 
no  right  to  contract  debts  which  another  must  pay — and  conse 
quently  that  the  validity  of  an  obligation  of  that  sort  is  to  be  as 
certained  not  by  its  terms  or  the  general  principles  of  justice,  but  by 
reference  to  bills  of  mortality,  in  order  to  see  if  a  majority  of  the 
contracting  generation  has  died  off;  and  the  obligation  to  pay, 
has  been  extinguished  with  it.  Upon  this  luminous  and  sub 
stantial  principle,  the  longer  a  government  defers  the  payment 
of  its  debts,  the  less  the  obligation  to  satisfy  their  creditors  be 
comes,  and  of  course  as  the  generous  La  Fayette  had  been  left 
unrequited  for  his  pecuniary  sacrifices  in  support  of  our  inde- 

*  The  bankrupt  trash,  means  the  paper  of  the  State  and  private  banks — 
the  old  United  States  bank  of  Hamilton  having  then  wound  up  its  operations 
in  conformity  with  the  limitation  of  its  charter,  and  the  new  one  of  Madi 
son,  not  having  been  as  yet  incorporated. 


78 

pendence  for  a  term  longer  than  the  average  existence  of  the 
majority  of  a  generation  after  it  has  reached  the  age  of  discre 
tion — that  is,  has  attained  the  legal  capacity  to  borrow — our  go 
vernment  transgressed  both  right  and  justice  in  acknowledging 
his  unassorted  claim,  and  making  provision  for  it.  This  singu 
lar  theory  is  so  exuberantly  fallacious*  so  arborescently  absurd, 
that  it  well  deserves  a  closer  examination  than  I  can  afford  to 
bestow  on  it. 

With  regard  to  the  monstrous  inconsistencies  of  these  States 
men,  it  may  "be  observed  that  as  their  plan  when  out  of  power, 
was  to  decry  every  measure  of  the  party  in  power,  not  with  a 
view  of  putting  them  right,  but  of  putting  them  out,  it  occurred 
naturally  that  they  were  often,  after  they  succeeded,  obliged  to 
adopt  the  very  proceedings  they  had  denounced.  This  dilemma 
is  illustrated,  while  it  explains  it,  by  the  apparent  inconsistency 
of  that  iion-descript  debater  John  Randolph,  in  vilifying  both 
parties.  The  measures  which  he  had  concurred  with  Messrs. 
Jefferson  and  Madison  in  reprobating  in  the  federal  administra 
tion,  he  differed  from  them  by  denouncing  when  sanctioned  by 
their  own  ;  and  his  error  was  either  that  he  did  not  examine,  or 
was  incapable  of  judging  whether  in  the  first  case,  the  measure 
was  right  or  wrong.  Fallacies  which  he  was  betrayed  into  by 
passion,  and  adhered  to  through  obstinacy,  his  leaders  broached 
from  interest  and  abandoned  from  calculation,  and  while  con 
scious  of  the  substantial  sin  of  injustice,  they  drowned  his  eloquent 
invectives,  in  a  shower  of  reproaches  for  the  equivocal  fault  of  in 
consistency — for  varying  from  their  own  inconstant  standard. 


LETTER  VI. 

THE  course  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  correspondence  next  leads  us  to 
his  famous  letter  to  Mazzei,  which,  in  a  futile  attempt  to  explain 
it,  he  denominates  (Vol.  4.  p.  401.)  "a  precious  theme  of  federal 
crimination."  It  bears  date  less  than  two  months  anterior  to  that 
in  which  he  assures  Gen.  Washington  gf  his  total  abstraction 
from  party  politics,  and  reviles  Gen.  Lee  so  bitterly  for  having 
intimated  a  doubt  of  the  sincerity  of  this  avowal.  Being  con 
nected  with  a  strenuous  effort  in  1797,  to  mask  one  of  its  bear 
ings,  and  with  an  abstract  attempt  in  1824,  to  parry  another,  it 
extends  to  two  distinct  eras,  both  as  it  regards  Gen.  Washington 
and  Mr.  Jefferson  himself.  To  the  former  it  refers  both  before 
and  after  his  death,  to  his  envied  popularity,  and  his  unsullied 


79 

renown  j  to  the  latter,  while  intent  upon  the  acquisition  of  power ; 
and  after  that  had  been  enjoyed  and  resigned,  when  covetous  of 
of  fame.  You  will  therefore  perceive  that  the  task  of  detecting 
its  true  meaning,  (and  of  exposing  the  objects  with  which  it  was 
written)  if  not  likely  to  require  ability  in  a  writer,  will  demand  of 
the  reader  patient  attention. 

As  it  appears  in  his  "  Writings,"  this  letter,  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
public  matters,  is  in  the  following  words,  (Vol.  3.  p.  327.) 

"  Monticello,  April  24th,  1796." 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — The  aspect  of  our  politics  has  won 
derfully  changed  since  you  left  us.  In  place  of  that  noble  love 
of  liberty  and  republican  government  which  carried  us  triumph 
antly  through  the  war,  an  Anglican,  monarchical,  and  aristocrati- 
cal  party  has  sprung  up,  whose  avowed  object  is  to  draw  over  us 
the  substance,  as  they  have  already  done  the  forms,  of  the  British 
government.  The  main  body  of  our  citizens,  however,  remain 
true  to  their  republican  principles  ;  the  whole  landed  interest  is 
republican,  and  so  is  a  great  mass  of  talents.  Against  us  are  the 
executive,  the  judiciary,  two  out  of  three  branches  of  the  legisla 
ture,  all  the  officers  of  the  government,  all  who  want  to  be  offi 
cers,  all  timid  men  who  prefer  the  calm  of  despotism  to  the 
boisterous  sea  of  liberty,  British  merchants,  and  Americans  trading 
on  British  capitals,  speculators,  and  holders  in  the  banks  and 
public  funds,  a  contrivance  invented  for  purposes  of  corruption, 
and  for  assimilating  us  in  all  things  to  the  rotten  as  well  as  the 
sound  parts  of  the  British  model.  It  would  give  you  a  fever  were 
I  to  name  to  you  the  apostates  who  have  gone  over  to  these 
heresies,  men  who  were  Samsons  in  the  field,  and  Solomons  in 
the  council,  but  who  have  had  their  heads  shorn  by  the  harlot  of 
England.  In  short,  we  are  likely  to  preserve  the  liberty  we  have 
gained  only  by  unremitting  labours  and  perils.  But  we  shall 
preserve  it ;  and  our  mass  of  weight  and  wealth  on  the  good 
side  is  so  great,  as  to  leave  no  danger  that  force  will  ever  be  at 
tempted  against  us.  We  have  only  to  awake  and  snap  the  Lilli 
putian  cords,  with  which  they  have  been  entangling  us  during 
the  first  sleep  which  succeeded  our  labours." 

This  letter,  or  rather  this  part  of  it,  was  translated  into  Italian, 
and  published  by  Mazzei  in  a  Gazette  of  Florence.  In  Paris,  it 
was  republished  in  the  Moniteur  in  a  French  version  of  Maz- 
zei's  translation,  with  editorial  remarks  adapted  to  its  sentiments, 
tending  to  show  the  faithless  spirit  of  our  government  towards 
France,  the  strength  of  the  Gallican  party  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  justice  as  well  as  the  policy  of  the  hostile  measures  pur- 


80 

sued  by  the  directory  towards  us.  From  the  Moniteur  it  was 
transferred  to  the  English  papers,  after  undergoing  a  retransla- 
tion,  and  in  this  last  dress  found  its  way  to  the  United  States. 
Although  it  bore  no  signature  it  was  immediately  imputed  to 
Mr.  Jefferson,  a  circumstance  which  occasioned  his  favouring  Mr. 
Madison  with  the  following  eager  explanation  of  it.  (Vol.  3.  p. 
362.) 

"  Monticello,  August  3d,  1797. 

"  I  SCRIBBLED  you  a  line  on  the  24th  ult.,  it  missed  of  the  post, 
and  so  went  by  a  private  hand.  I  perceive  from  yours  by  Mr. 
Bringhurst  that  you  had  not  received  it.  In  fact  it  was  only  an 
earnest  exhortation  to  come  here  with  Monroe,  which  I  still  hope 
you  will  do.  In  the  mean  time  I  enclose  you  a  letter  from  him, 
and  wish  your  opinion  on  its  principal  subject.  The  variety  of 
other  topics,  the  day  I  was  with  you,  kept  out  of  sight  the  letter  to 
Mazzei  imputed  to  me  in  the  papers,  the  general  substance  of 
which  is  mine,  though  the  diction  has  been  considerably  altered 
and  varied  in  the  course  of  its  translations  from  English  into 
Italian,  from  Italian*  into  French,  and  from  French  into  English. 
I  first  met  with  it  at  Bladensburg,  and  for  a  moment  conceived  I 
rftust  take  the  field  of  the  public  papers.  I  could  not  disavow  it 
wriolly,  because  the  greatest  part  was  mine,  in  substance  though 
not  in  form.  I  could  not  avow  it  as  it  stood,  because  the  form 
was  not  mine,  and  in  one  place,  the  substance  very  materially 
falsified.  This,  then,  would  render  explanations  necessary  ;  nay 
it  would  render  proofs  of  the  whole  necessary,  and  draw  me  at 
length  into  a  publication  of  all  (even  the  secret)  transactions  of 
the  cabinet  while  I  was  of  it ;  and  embroil  me  personally  with 
every  member  of  the  executive,  with  the  judiciary,  and  with  others 
still.  I  soon  decided  in  my  own  mind,  to  be  entirely  silent.  I 
consulted  with  several  friends  at  Philadelphia,  who,  every  one  of 
them,  were  clearly  against  my  avowing  or  disavowing,  and  some 
of  them  conjured  me  most  earnestly  to  let  nothing  provoke  me  to 
it.  I  corrected,  in  conversation  with  them,  a  substantial  misre 
presentation  of  the  copy  published.  The  original  has  a  senti 
ment  like  this,  (for  I  have  it  not  before  me)  l  they  are  endea 
vouring  to  submit  us  to  the  substance,  as  they  already  have  to 
the  forms  of  the  British  government,'  meaning  by  forms  the 
birth-days,  levees,  processions  to  Parliament,  inauguration  pom 
posities,  &c.  But  the  copy  published  says,  *  as  they  have  already 
submitted  us  to  the  form  of  the  British,'  &c. ;  making  me  express 
hostility  to  the  form  of  our  government,  that  is,  to  the  constitution 
itself.  For  this  is  really  the  difference  of  the  word/arm,  used  in 


81 

the  singular  or  plural,  in  that  phrase  in  the  English  language. 
Now  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  explain  this  publicly,  with 
out  bringing  on  a  personal  difference  between  Gen.  Washington 
and  myself,  which  nothing  before  the  publication  of  tliis  letter  has 
ever  done.  It  would  embroil  me  too,  with  all  those  with  whom 
his  character  is  still  popular,  that  is,  with  nine-tenths  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  ;  and  what  good  would  be  obtained  by 
avowing  the  letter  with  the  rlecessary  explanations  ?  Very  little, 
indeed,  in  my  opinion,  to  counterbalance  a  good  deal  of  harm. 
From  my  silence  in  this  instance,  it  cannot  te  inferred  that  I  am 
afraid  to  own  the  general  sentiments  of  the  letter.  If  I  am  sub 
ject  to  either  imputation,  it  is  to  that  of  avowing  such  sentiments 
too  frankly  both  in  private  and  public,  often  when  there  is  no 
necessity  for  it,  merely  because  I  disdain  every  thing  like  du 
plicity.  Still,  however,  I  am  open  to  conviction.  Think  for  me 
on  the  occasion,  and  advise  me  what  to  do,  and  confer  with  Col. 
Monroe  on  the  subject.  Let  me  entreat  you  again  to  come  with 
him  ;  there  are  other  important  things  to  consult  upon." 

The  explanation  here  •  advanced  is  evidently  designed  to  im 
pose  on  Mr.  Madison,  and  therefore  is  naturally  at  variance  with 
that  subsequently  furnished  to  Mr.  Van  Buren — the  object  of 
which  was  to  delude  him  into  the  belief  that  Gen.  Washington 
had  never  taken  exception  to  the  letter  to  Mazzei,  and  that  asser 
tions  to  that  effect,  were  the  false  effusions  "of  federal  malice." 

The  design  upon  Mr.  Madison,  was  a  double  one ;  first,  to 
reconcile  him  to  the  unmanliness  of  preferring  an  evasive  silence, 
to  an  open  avowal  or  fair  explanation  of  the  letter ;  second,  to 
-conceal  from  him,  if  possible,  the  obvious  application  of  its  cen 
sure  to  himself.  As  this  latter  application  had  a  tendency  to 
wound  the  delicacy  of  his  self-love,  it  is  dexterously  covered  by 
the  former  part  of  his  design,  and  by  that  stratagem  is  made  to 
appear  as  if  it  were  intended  solely  to  answer  their  mutual  pur 
pose,  of  avoMing  an  open  rupture  with  Gen.  Washington.  In 
furtherance  of  this  scheme,  Mr.  Madison  is  assured  that  in  conse 
quence  of  mutilations  which  successive  translations  had  produced 
in  the  text  of  the  letter  to  Mazzei,  Mr.  Jefferson  could  not  disavow 
it  wholly  with  truth,  nor  avow  it  wholly  without  explanations  ; 
which  explanations  "  would  embroil  him  personally  with  every 
member  of  the  executive,  with  the  judiciary,  and  with  others  ;" 
that  consequently  he  decided  very  soon  in  his  own  mind  to  re 
main  perfectly  silent ;  and  that  certain  nameless  friends,  whom 
he  consulted  in  Philadelphia,  were  clear  and  earnest  for  his  per 
sisting  in  this  equivocal  silence.  Mentioning  then  that  he  had 
corrected  in  conversation  with  these  frank  and  worthy  persons,  a 

11 


82 

substantial  error  in  the  copy,  he  shuffles  clown,  with  a  sort  of  bra 
zen  confusion,  to  the  point  of  the  slander  which  was  pressing 
against  Mr.  Madison's  reputation  ;  and  keeping  that  confederate's 
eyes,  upturned  all  the  while  to  the  indignant  countenance  of  Gen. 
Washington,  slips  out  the  following  card  of  deception  : —  "  The 
original  has  a  sentiment  like  this,  (for  1  have  it  not  before  me,) 
1  they  are  endeavouring  to  submit  us  to  the  substance  as  they 
already  have  to  the  forms  of  the  British  Government,'  meaning 
by  forms,  the  birth-days,  levees,  processions  to  Parliament,  in 
auguration  pomposities,  &c.  But  the  copy  published  says,  l  as 
they  have  already  submitted  us  to  the  form  of  the  British,  &c. 
making  me  express  hostility  to  the  form  of  our  Government,  that 
is  to  the  Constitution  itself.  For  this  is  really  the  difYerence  of 
the  word  form,  in  the  singular  or  plural,  in  that  phrase,  in  the 
English  language." 

As  Mr.  Jefferson  made  this  exposition,  confessedly  on  the 
strength  of  his  memory,  and  not  from  a  collation  of  the  copy  with 
the  original,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  suggesting  that  he  was 
mistaken  in  point  of  fact ;  that  the  word  used  in  the  letter  to 
Mazzei,  was  form.  His  hand  writing  was  remarkably  neat, 
plain,  and  correct,  as  is  known  to  his  numerous  correspondents, 
and  appears  by  the  fac-simile  at  the  end  of  his  4th  volume ; 
and  Mazzei,  from  their  intimacy  and  correspondence,  was  familiar 
with  it.  The  probability  is  that  in  a  letter  which  this  person 
thought,  or  was  induced  to  consider,  of  sufficient  importance  to  be 
published  in  the  Florence  Gazette,  he  would  be  careful  to  see 
that  no  error  was  committed  in  its  translation  or  publication  ;  and 
it  having  been  accurately  printed  in  Italian,  a  subsequent  error  of 
the  kind  insisted  on,  was  almost  impossible.  For  in  the  French 
language,  as  in  the  Italian,  the  difference  between  the  singular 
and  the  plural  in  nouns,  is  marked  by  a  change  in  the  termina 
tion  of  two  words,  that  is  the  article  and  the  noun  ;  as  for  exam 
ple — in  Italian  la  forma,  singular,  is  le  forme  plural ;  and  in 
French,  la  forme  singular,  is  les  formes  plural.  Whereas  in 
English,  the  change  is  confined  to  one  word,  and  consists  solely 
in  the  absence  or  presence  of  the  s  final.  Thus,  if  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  written  forms,  the  care  of  Mazzei,  would  have  ensured  the 
appearance  in  the  Florence  Gazette,  of  the  phrase  le  forme, 
which  the  structure  of  the  French  and  Italian  languages  would 
have  forced  the  Moniteur  to  represent  by  les  formes  ;  a  noun 
that  the  English  translator  would  of  necessity,  have  known  to  be 
plural,  and  would  have  so  rendered.  From  these  intrinsic 
evidences,  it  is  highly  improbable,  to  say  the  least,  that  if  Mr. 
Jefferson  wrote  the  word  in  the  plural,  it  should  have  been  alter 
ed  in  the  series  of  translations  into  the  singular. 


83 

But  considering  it  in  another  point  of  view,  if  thfe  alteration1 
did  actually  happen,  as  he  affirms,  "  in  the  course  of  its  transla 
tions  from  English  into  Italian,  from  Italian  into  French,  and 
from  French  into  English,"  it  only  proves  that  the  person  who 
made  the  alteration,  considered  it,  as  every  body  else  will  proba^ 
bly  do,  immaterial,  deeming  the  two  phrasesybrm  of  government, 
and  forms  of  government ;,  equivalent ;  and  that  the  use  of  the 
one  or  the  other,  made  no  change  whatever  in  the  meaning; 
Thus  a  sort  of  dilemma  arises  at  the  threshhold  of  his  explanation, 
and  seems  to  shake  its  horns  at  this  assertion  of  Mr.  Jefferson^ 
making  it  either  erroneous  or  idle.  If  the  error  of  version  be  not 
unlikely,  the  equivalent  construction  put  upon  the  phrases  by  the 
peccant  translator,  becomes  highly  probable ;  and  if  this  construc 
tion  is  considered  unnatural,  the  error  of  translation  is  scarcely 
possible. 

But  can  it  be  seriously  supposed  by  the  most  ignorant,  or  by  the 
most  learned  man,  that  Mazzei,  or  any  one  else  in  Europe  or  Ame 
rica,  could  understand  by  the  phrase,  jforws  of  the  British  govern- 
mentjihe  King's  birth-night  balls,  the  Queen's  levees,  processions 
to  parliament,  or  ceremonies  of  the  Coronation?  Does  Mon 
tesquieu,  in  his  analysis,  or  De  Lolme,  in  his  description  of  the 
English  Constitution,  allude,  even  to  these  forms  ?  Was  the 
mind  of  Pope,  when  he  wrote  the  oft-repeated  line, 

"  For  forms  of  government  let  fools  contest," 

inspired  by  levees,  birth  nights,  and  processions?  After  the  alleged 
transplantation  of  these  ceremonies  in  America,  did  they  become 
forms  of  our  government,  of  a  government  which  exists  solely  in 
our  written  constitution.  When  Mr.  Jefferson  on  becoming 
President  announced  to  Mr.  Macon,  the  heads  of  the  reformation 
he  proposed  to  introduce,  and  commenced  the  list  with  "  Levees 
are  done  away  ;"  could  the  venerable  senator  from  North  Carolina, 
have  understood  that  a  certain  form  of  our  government  was  to 
be  abolished?  Are  the  Washington  birth  night  balls,  which 
still  anniversarily  recur  in  the  towns  and  villages  of  the  United 
States,  forms  of  the  federal  or  state  governments  ?  Were  the 
weekly  levees  of  Mrs.  Madison  and  Mrs.  Monroe  forms  of  political 
or  petticoat  government  ?  Or  was  the  custom  adopted  by  Gen. 
Washington  of  opening  each  session  of  Congress  with  a  speech, 
instead  of  a  message,  when  he  was  attended  by  a  voluntary  con 
course  of  his  fellow-citizens,  <iform  of  the  British  government, 
"  drawn  over"  the  people  of  the  United  States  ? 

The  truth  is  that  as  a  message  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
a  written  speech,  and  us  the  Kings  of  England  open  the  sessions 


84 

of  Parliament  by  commission,  more  frequently  than  in  person, 
Mr.  Jefferson's  custom  was  of  a  more  regal  form  than  Gen. 
Washington's,  was  less  consistent  with  the  frank  and  open  car 
riage  of  a  republican  officer,  less  respectful  to  the  legislative  bodies, 
and  consequently  to  the  people  and  the  States  whom  they  repre 
sented.  M*>^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  forms  of  the  British  government  have 
universally  been  understood  to  mean  its  division  into  legislative, 
executive,  and  judiciary  departments ;  the  unity  of  its  executive ; 
the  duality  of  its  legislature,  and  the  independence  of  its  judiciary. 
These  forms  were  imitated  with  more  or  less  exactness,  as  they 
appeared  conducive  to  the  substance  of  freedom,  in  the  constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  as  may  be  seen  by  reference  to  the 
compact  itself,  and  to  the  essays  of  Mr.  Madison  expounding  it ; 
and  were  unquestionably  the  subject  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  remark 
whether  he  used  the  word  in  the  singular  or  the  plural. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  in  a  letter  to  John  Dickinson  (V.  3.  p.  487.)  in 
reference  to  the  objects  of  the  revolution,  says — "  Surely  we  had 
in  view  to  obtain  the  theory  and  practice  of  good  government ; 
and  how  any,  who  seemed  so  ardent  in  this  pursuit,  could  as 
shamelessly  have  apostatised,  and  supposed  we  meant  only  to 
put  our  government  into  other  hands,  lout  not  other  forms,  is  in 
deed  wonderful."  Now  here  this  word  forms  is  used  in  the 
plural  and  in  connexion  with  the  word  government ;  yet  it  can 
not  be  forced  by  any  construction  into  the  meaning  of "  birth 
days,  levees  or  processions  to  parliament"  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
assures  his  friend  Mr.  Madison,  it  always  bore  "  in  that  phrase  in 
the  English  language." 

Thus  it  appears,  that  if  we  examine  into  the  effect  of  the  various 
translations  of  this  letter,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
used  the  word  form  in  the  singular,  in  opposition  to  substance  in 
the  previous  member  of  the  sentence  ;  and  that,  if  out  of  courtesy, 
we  admit  his  assertion  to  the  contrary,  we  discover  that  the  alte 
ration  of  the  text,  which  he  insists  on,  would  make  not  the  least 
possible  difference  in  his  meaning.  The  conclusion  therefore  is, 
even  from  these  premises,  that  this  eager  explanation  to  Mr.  Ma 
dison,  was  factitious  and  fraudulent,  intended  not  so  much  to 
consult  as  to  mislead  his  judgment,  and  td  prevent  his  taking 
offence  at  finding  himself  classed  with  the  members  of  the  "  An 
glican,  monarchical,  and  aristocratica'l  party,"  which  had  "  sprung 
up"  in  the  United  States.  For  the  natural  import  of  the  lan 
guage,  whether  the  word  form  or  forms  be  employed,  is,  that 
-those  persons  who  had  drawn  over  us  the  forms  of  the  British 
government,  that  is  the  framers  of  our  constitution,  had  combined 


85 

into  an  Anglican,  monarchical,  and  aristocratical  party,  and  were 
trying  to  draw  over  us  also  its  substance^  that  is,  its  corruption, 
its  executive  patronage,  its  privileged  classes,  its  sinecures  and 
hereditary  tenure  of  office.  Now,  as  Mr.  Madison's  popularity  and 
public  reputation,  were  founded  on  his  exertions  and  influence  in 
devising  the  forms  of  our  government,  (not  birth  night  balls, 
levees,  &c.)and  in  recommending  their  adoption  to  the  people,  the 
inference,  that  he  was  implicated  in  the  slander  entrusted  to 
Mazzeij  is  irresistible. 

You  may  ask,  if  this  explanation  be  so  shallow  and  prepos 
terous,  how  Mr.  Jefferson  could  venture  to  oiler,  or  succeed  in 
imposing  it,  on  a  person  of  Mr.  Madison's  scholastic  and  practical 
acquaintance  with  our  language.  The  answer  is  that  Mr.  Ma- 
disori  had  been  accustomed  to  be  deceived  by  him,  and  in  this  case 
would  be  willing  to  be  imposed  on.  Mithridates  took  poison  so 
often,  that  at  last,  the  most  deadly  and  active  substances  would 
produce  no  disturbance  in  his  stomach  ;  and  it  is  easy  to  com 
prehend  how  reluctant  Mr.  Madison  would  be  on  the  occasion  in 
question  to  doubt  the  personal  friendship  or  to  lose  the  political 
alliance  of  Mr.  Jefferson. '  The  latter  had  therefore  in  his  favour 
the  power  of  habit  and  the  influence  of  self-love  ;  agents  of  force 
enough  to  bias  the  strongest  understanding.  Besides,  the  offen 
sive  meaning  of  the  sentence,  was  rendered  less  obvious,  than  it 
might  have  been,  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  declining  to  enclose  the  ge 
nuine  letter,  though  he  was  then  at  Monticello,  that  great  mint  of 
pr ess-copies ^  where,  as  you  may  remember,  one  was  readily  coined 
to  appease  the  apprehended  resentment  of  Col.  Burr,  and  where  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  another  was  struck  twenty-seven  years 
subsequently  to  bewilder  the  credulity  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  In 
stead  of  sending  him  a  faithful  copy  of  his  letter,  he  refers  him  to 
one  from  Mr.  Monroe,  and  persuades  him  to  a  conference  with 
that  gentleman,  who  as  he  had  borne  no  part  in  the  formation  of 
the  constitution  and  but  an  immaterial  one  in  its  adoption,*  (V.  2. 
p.  367.)  might  be  the  more  easily  employed  to  decoy  Mr.  Madison 
into  security  as  to  himself,  and  into  apprehension  as  to  the  effect 
which  an  avowal  or  explanation  of  the  letter  would  have  on  Mr. 
Jefferson,  and  through  him  on  the  interests  of  the  whole  party. 

To  mislead  Mr.  Madison  still  further,  he  avers  that  the  sen 
tence,  by  its  alleged  alteration,  would  make  him  "  express  hos 
tility  to  the  form  of  our  government,  that  is  to  the  constitution 
itself" — whereas,  if  Mr.  Madison  had  seen  the  letter  itself,  he  would 
have  perceived  that  it  could  produce  no  such  effect — for  certainly 

*  Sec  Robertson's  Debates  of  the  Virginia  convention, 


to  say  that  the  form  of  the  Federal  government  resembles  that  of 
Great  Britain — which  was  admitted  on  all  hands,  to  be  the  best 
in  existence  before  ours  was  created,  and  to  which  it  is  related  by 
such  strong  and  numerous  analogies,  cannot  be  interpreted  into 
an  expression  of  hostility  to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
without  going  to  the  absurdity  of  imputing  that  sentiment  to  the 
fathers  of  our  charter.  This  superfluous  defence,  shews  that  it 
was  the  language  he  concealed  from  Mr.  Madison,  not  that 
which  he  repeated  to  him,  his  conscience  and  not  his  communi 
cation,  which  on  this  occasion  was  his  accuser.  For  his  letter  to 
Mazzei,  as  now  published,  does  most  certainly  "  express  hostility 
to  the  Constitution  itself,"  as  well  as  to  its  framcrs. 

But  this  chicanery,  contemptible  as  it  is,  is  not  the  worst  part 
of  the  letter  to  Mr.  Madison.  For  after  admitting  the  letter  to 
Mazzei  to  be  in  substance  his,  Mr.  Jefferson  expresses  his  deter 
mination,  neither  to  avow,  nor  disavow,  nor  explain  it,  for  fear  of 
its  bringing  on  a  personal  difference  between  himself  and  Gen. 
Washington,  and  embroiling  him  with  other  distinguished  men. 
He  said  to  Mr.  Madison,  as  he  had  said  to  Mr.  Monroe.  /  have 
written  a  letter  to  Mazzei,  of  a  character  to  wound  the  feel 
ings  of  Gen.  Washington  and  several  other  gentlemen. 
Contrary  to  iny  expectation  it  is  published  in  the  American 
newspapers,  fortunately  without  my  signature,  but  in  sub 
stance  as  1  ivrote  it,  though  with  the  alteration  of  one  word, 
which  I  think  changes  its  meaning  in  one  respect,  but  which 
neither  increases  nor  lessens  the  personal  offence  it  is  likely  to 
give.  I  cannot  avow  it  wholly  because  of  this  alteration,  nor 
disavow  it  altogether  because  of  its  substantial  accuracy,  nor 
explain  its  alterations  without  bringing  on  a  personal  differ 
ence  with  Gen.  Washington,  and  embroiling  me  with  these 
other  eminent  persons.  1  am  therefore  decided  in  my  own 
mind,  neither  to  avow,  nor  to  disavow,  nor  to  explain  it:  and 
by  this  silence  to  avoid  the  personal  responsibility,  to  which  it 
would  subject  me  as  well  as  the  serious  harm  it  would  occa 
sion  to  my  own  popularity  and  our  mutual  political  plans. 
I  am  anxious  to  get  your  advice  on  the  subject,  and  1  hope, 
that,  after  consulting  with  Monroe,  you  will  approve,  like  my 
honest  friends  in  Philadelphia,  this  prudent  and  evasive  si 
lence. 

Here,  if  we  trust  the  indications  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  correspond 
ence,  are  three  citizens  who  were  destined  to  rise  in  succession  to 
the  liighest  place  in  the  popular  affection  and  political  power  of  a 
great  republic — in  a  government,  the  essential  principle  of  which 


87 

is  virtue,*  consulting  together  on  a  point  of  conduct,  upon  which 
no  man  of  honesty  can  possibly  doubt,  and,  as  far  as  appears, 
finally  adopting  a  proceeding,  which  no  man  of  honour  can  ap 
prove.  Is  it  possible  tobelieve  that  Gen.  Washington  ever  could 
have  shrunk  into  such  ignominious  evasion?  Or  can  the  ut 
most  stretch  of  the  imagination  conceive  him  consulting  urgently 
and  secretly  with  Gen.  Hamilton  and  Gen.  Lee,  upon  a  step,  of 
which  the  vast  departure  from  manliness  and  honour,  no  lan 
guage  can  describe  ?  If  there  exist  a  being  who  can  suppose  so 
great  an  improbability,  let  him  refer  to  the  undisputed  fact  that 
arose  out  of  the  resignation  of  Edmund  Randolph  as  Secretary  of 
State.  That  gentleman — "  for  the  purposet  as  he  alleged  of 
vindicating  his  conduct,  demanded  the  sight  of  a  confidential 
letter  which  had  been  addressed  to  him  by  the  President,  and 
which  was  left  in  the  office.  His  avowed  design  was  to  give  this 
as  well  as  some  others  of  the  same  description  to  the  public  in  or 
der  to  support  the  allegation,  that  in  consequence  of  his  attach 
ment  to  France  and  to  liberty,  he  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  in 
trigues  of  a  British  and  aristocratic  party."  To  this  demand 
Washington  replied — "  I  have  directed  that  you  have  the  inspec 
tion  of  my  letter  of  the  22d  of  July,  agreeably  to  your  request,  and 
you  are  at  full  liberty  to  publish,  without  reserve,  any  and  every 
private  and  confidential  letter  I  ever  wrote  you.  Nay  more, 
every  word  I  ever  uttered  to  or  in  your  presence  from  whence  you 
can  derive  any  advantage  in  your  vindication."  I 

No  contrast  can  be  stronger  than  the  difference  between  these 
proceedings — that  of  Washington  displaying  a  consciousness  of 
rectitude,  a  sense  of  magnanimity,  and  an  ardent  love  of  truth. 
To  the  admirers  of  Mr.  Jefferson  I  leave  the  glorious  task  of  potir- 
traying  the  virtues  which  on  the  occasion  he  exhibited.  Let 
them  reconcile  his  silence  with  the  sentiments  of  his  letter 
abusing  Gen.  Lee,  his  evasion  with  honour,  his  secrecy  with 
truth,  either  with  the  spirit  of  an  independent  man,  or  the  duty 
of  a  good  citizen.  Let  them  account  for  his  conduct  on  any 
other  hypothesis  than  that  involving  a  consciousness  of  the  in 
justice  of  his  own  aspersions ;  a  fear  of  the  exposure  their  avowal 
would  "  draw  over"  him  personally  and  politically,  in  substance 
as  well  as  inform;  and  an  apprehension  that  besides  this  formi 
dable  array  of  enemies,  it  would  be  attended  by  the  rupture  of 
his  alliance  with  Mr.  Madison,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  this 
valuable  auxiliary.  For  from  the  incompatibility  between  the 

*  Montesquieu.     Esprit  des  Lois,  liv.3.  chap.  3. 
t  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  p.  31.  Notes, 
i  Marshall,  ibid. 


88 

tenor  of  his  professions  to  Gen.  Washington  and  his  communica 
tions  to  Mr.  Madison,  it  was  morally  impossible  that  an  explana 
tion  which  would  disarm  Gen.  Washington,  should  not  offend 
Mr.  Madison.  While  to  a  private  one,  therefore,  he  was  averse, 
a  public  one,  he  actually  dreaded. 

There  is  one  sentence  which  brings  us  to  the  zero  of  pusilla 
nimity — to  a  point  of  prevarication,  at*  which  Mr.  Jefferson's 
moral  sense  seems  to  have  undergone  congelation,  and  to  have 
been  attended  by  an  instinctive  assurance  that  a  similar  catas 
trophe  had  befallen  his  friends — a  degree  in  the  descending  scale 
of  dishonour  at  which  shame  and  fear  are  actually  transmuted 
into  vanity  and  impudence.  After  this  elaborate  equivocation 
and  dissembling,  he  exclaims — "  From  my  silence  in  this  in 
stance,  it  cannot  be  inferred  that  I  am  afraid  to  own  the  general 
sentiments  of  the  letter.  If  I  am  subject  to  either  imputation,  it 
is  to  that  of  avowing  such  sentiments  too  frankly  both  in  private 
and  public,  often  when  there  is  no  necessity  for  it,  merely  because 
I  disdain  every  thing  like  duplicity." ! !  And  to  be  convinced  that 
his  love  of  truth  was  as  sincere  as  his  "  disdain  of  every  thing 
like  duplicity,"  you  have  only  to  remember  that  he  assured  Gen. 
Washington  in  his  letter  abusing  Gen.  Lee — which  was  written 
in  the  interval  between  the  date  of  the  letter  to  Mazzei  and  of 
this  to  Mr.  Madison,  "  of  his  total  abstraction  from  party  politics" 
— that  "  political  conversations  he  really  disliked  and  therefore 
avoided  when  he  could  without  affectation — or  unless  they  were 
urged  by  others." 

There  yet  remain  to  be  considered  in  this  explanation  to  Mr. 
Madison,  two  expressions,  which  will  be  found  singularly  signifi 
cant.  The  first  occurs  in  tho  following  sentence — "  Now  it 
would  be  impossible  for  me  to  explain  this  publicly,  without  bring 
ing  on  a  personal  difference  between  Gen.  Washington  and  my 
self,  ivhich  nothing  before  the  publication  of  this  letter  has 
ever  done."  Does  not  the  conclusion  of  this  sentence  contain  of 
itself  a  complete  justification  of  Gen.  Lee,  out  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
own  mouth  ?  What  does  it  signify,  but  that  although  he  was 
conscious  of  having,  before  this  letter  to  Mazzei  was  published, 
given  abundant  cause  to  justify  the  personal  resentment  of  Gen. 
Washington,  it  had  as  yet  never  been  excited  ?  What  it  is  but 
telling  Mr.  Madison,  that  notwithstanding  the  many  injurious 
and  disparaging  remarks,  the  numerous  misrepresentations  and 
calumnies  in  which  he  had  ventured  to  indulge,  and  his  corres 
pondence  and  conversations  with  him  and  other  "  political  friends 
and  connexions,"  he  had  hitherto  managed  to  avoid  a  personal 


89 

difference  with  Gen.  Washington  '?  If  this  be  not  the  meaning 
of  his  words,  they  are  destitute  of  meaning. 

In  the  succeeding  remark — "  It  would  embroil  me  too  with 
all  those  with  whom  his  character  is  still  popular,  that  is  with 
nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  the  United  States" — the  adverb  still, 
is  as  expressive,  as  any  single  word  can  be.  The  "  tandem  liber 
equus"  of  Virgil,  so  much  celebrated  byjcommentators,  yields  to  it 
in  significancy.  It  unclasps  a  volume  of  our  national  history 
which  has  as  yet  been  very  little  read — it  developes  the  spirit  of 
the  voluminous  correspondence  I  have  been  examining,  and  casts 
a  detecting  light  on  the  most  obscure  and  invidious  calumnies  in 
Mr.  Jefferson's  innumerable  letters  to  Messrs.  Madison  and  Mon 
roe.  It  now  confesses  to  the  world,  what  it  was  then  intended  to 
hint  to  these  two  chosen  confederates,  that  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts 
to  destroy  the  popularity  of  Gen.  Washington,  there  was  but  too 
good  reason  to  fear  that  a  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  remained  still  devoted  to  him. 

The  truth  is,  however,  that  these  efforts  were  not  altogether  un 
successful.  Gen.  Washington  did  retire  from  office,  and  descended 
to  his  grave  with  a  name  which  though  unsullied,  was  dimmed 
for  a  season,  by  the  slanders  thus  hatched  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
and  thus  confided  to  his  compeers,  and  with  a  heart  that  was  not 
agonized,  only  because  the  ethereal  temper  of  virtue  is  impassive 
to  the  shafts  of  malice.  This  disinterested  and  devoted  patriot 
was  publicly  threatened  with  impeachment,  and  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  vindicating  himself  against  an  open  charge  of  pecu 
niary  corruption.*  And  after  laying  down  his  office,  he  was  con 
demned  to  learn  that  a  leading  member  of  Congress  from  his 
own  State,  had  reproached  him  in  debate  with  a  want  of  wis 
dom  and  firmness,  and  rejoiced  at  his  retirement  as  an  event  of 
national  advantage.! 

In  the  chicanery,  slander,  and  ingratitude,  disclosed  by  the  ex 
amination  of  this  part  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  career,  was  laid  the  foun 
dation  of  that  ascendancy  which  he  gained  in  the  United  States, 
and  transmitted  to  his  successors,  Messrs.  Madison  and  Monroe, — 
an  ascendancy,  that  has  been  ascribed  to  patriotism,  wisdom,  and 
justice,  by  a  fiction  as  gross  in  its  nature,  and  as  pardonable  in 
its  prevalence,  as  that  which  induced  the  Romans  to  believe  that 
they  drew  their  lineage  from  the  Gods. 

*  Marshall,  5.  637. 

t  Ibid.  pp.  722-3.  Mr.  Giles  more  than  thirty  years  after  this  debate  took 
place,  attempted  for  the  first  time,  a  disavowal  of  his  speech — but  in  a  man 
ner  that  made  no  impression  to  his  advantage  on  the  public  mind, 

12 


90 

The  surviving  partisans  of  Mr.  Jefferson  will  not  be  proud  of 
this  political  pedigree  ;  but  as  it  is  traced  distinctly  through  his 
own  "  Writings,", has  every  link  of  its  chain  rivetted  by  his  own 
authority,  it  will  require  no  little  address  to  escape  from  its  encum 
brance.  Mr.  Madison,  indeed,  from  the  supereminence  of  his  re 
putation  and  talents,  and  the  strict  account  that  history  is  likely 
to  take  of  his  conduct,  may  feel  himself  called  on  by  the  publica 
tion  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  side  of  their  correspondence  to  declare, 
whether,  or  in  what  degree,  he  conspired  in  those  schemes  which 
projected  the  shadow  of  a  "  dim  eclipse"  between  the  glory  of 
Washington  and  the  admiration  of  his  fellow-citizens ;  and 
which,  while  the  lustre  of  his  name  shone  unclouded  in  other 
lands,  caused  it,  for  a  space,  to  shed,  but  pale  and  struggling 
beams  upon  his  native  country. 


LETTER  VII. 

IT  is  now  necessary  to  depart  from  the  order  of  time  observed 
in  Mr.  Jefferson's  correspondence,  and  to  transfer  your  attention 
to  the  explanation  with  which  he  was  so  kind  as  to  drug  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  twenty-seven  years  after  he  had  administered  to 
Mr.  Madison  the  dose  which  has  just  been  analysed. 

The  place  and  power  to  which  at  the  earlier  era  Mr.  Jefferson 
was*aspiring?,at  the  latter  he  had  gained  and  enjoyed.  The  object 
of  his  care  had  therefore  become  apparent  consistency,  and  of  his 
ambition,  posthumous  fame.  The  reputation  of  Gen.  Washing 
ton,  canonized  by  death,  had  recovered  from  the  effects  of  his  arts 
and  calumnies,  and  regained  its  natural  pre-eminence  in  his 
country's  affection.  Despairing  to  rival  Washington  with  pos 
terity,  he  was  content  to  seek  the  second  place  in  fame,  and 
praised  that  illustrious  man  when  dead,  from  the  same  selfish 
motive,  with  which,  when  living,  he  had  disparaged  and  tradu 
ced  him. 

The  letter  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  (29th  June,  1824,  V.  4.  p.  399,) 
is  too  long  for  insertion.  It  appears  to  be  in  answer  to  one  from 
that  gentleman  (then  a  Senator  of  the  United  States,  from  New- 
York,)  enclosing  a  publication  of  Mr.  Pickering,  which  contained 
among  other  controversial  matters,  some  remarks  on  this  letter  to 
Mazzei.  The  first  passage  that  I  shall  notice  is  the  following — 
"  The  other  allegation  respecting  myself,  is  equally  false.  In 
page  34,  Mr.  Pickering  quotes  Dr.  Stuart,  as  having  twenty 
years  ago  informed  him  that  Gen.  Washington,  c  when  he  be 


91 

came  a  private  citizen,'  called  me  to  account  for  expressions  in  a 
letter  to  Mazzei,  requiring  in  a  tone  of  unusual  severity  an  ex 
planation  of  that  letter.  He  adds  of  himself,  l  in  what  manner 
the  latter  humbled  himself,  and  appeased  the  just  resentment  of 
Washington,  will  never  be  known,  as  some  time  after  his  death, 
the  correspondence  was  not  to  be  found,  and  a  diary  for  an  im 
portant  period  of  his  presidency  was  also  missing  !'  The  diary 
being  of  transactions  during  his  presidency,  the  letter  to  Mazzei 
not  known  until  some  time  after  he  became  a  private  citizen, 
and  the  pretended  correspondence  of  course  after  that,  I  know 
not  why  this  lost  diary  and  supposed  correspondence  are  brought 
together  here,  unless  for  insinuations  worthy  of  the  letter  itself. 
The  correspondence  could  not  be  found,  indeed,  because  it  had 
never  existed.  I  do  affirm  that  there  never  passed  a  word,  writ* 
ten  or  verbal,  directly  or  indirectly,  between  Gen.  Washington  and 
myself  on  the  subject  of  that  letter.  He  would  never  have  de 
graded  himself  so  far  as  to  take  to  himself  the  imputation  in  that 
letter  on  the  '  Samsons  in  combat.'  The  whole  story  is  a  fabri 
cation,  and  I  defy  the  framers  of  it,  and  all  mankind  to  produce 
the  scrip  of  a  pen  between  Gen.  Washington  and  myself  on  the 
subject,  or  any  other  evidence  more  worthy  .of  credit,  than  the 
suspicions,  suppositions,  and  presumptions  of  the  two  persons  here 
quoting  and  quoted  for  it.  With  Dr.  Stuart  I  had  not  much  ac 
quaintance.  I  supposed  him  to  be  an  honest  man,  knew  him  to 
be  a  very  weak  one,  and,  like  Mr,  Pickering,  very  prone  to  an 
tipathies,  boiling  with  party  passions,  and  under  the  dominion  of 
these,  readily  welcoming  fancies  for  facts.  But  come  the  story 
from  whomsoever  it  might,  it  is  an  unqualified  falsehood." 

The  assertion  here  attributed  to  Dr.  Stuart,  had  been  frequently 
repeated  in  Virginia,  on  other  authority,  as  every  one,  acquainted 
with  "  the  body  of  the  time,"  will  remember.  As^Mr.  Pickering, 
however  warm  in  his  party  feelings,  was  admitted  on  all  hands, 
to  be  a  man  of  truth,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Dr.  Stuart 
made  the  assertion ;  and  you  will  be  able  to  recollect  that  the 
statement  made  on  Mr.  Pickering's  own  authority — "  added  of 
himself — respecting  "  the  lost  diary  and  supposed  correspon 
dence,"  was  current  in  society,  and  credited  by  the  friends  of  Gen. 
Washington,  and  by  all  who  were  familiar  with  those  friends. 
If  these,  or  such  of  them  as  survive  should,  as  is  probable,  be  led 
to  recur  to  President  Jefferson's  unexpected  appointment  and  re 
mote  relegation  of  Gen.  Washington's  secretary,  events  which 
corresponded  in  date  with  and  were  supposed  to  have  proceeded 
from,  the  loss  of  this  diary  and  correspondence :  they  will  be  apt 
to  conclude  that  by  the  same  instrumentality  Mr.  Jefferson  ac- 


92 

quired  his  occult  but  confident  acquaintance  with  Gen.  Lee's  pri 
vate  letters  to  Gen.  Washington. 

As  for  Dr.  Stuart,  he  was  a  man  of  excellent  character — a 
gentleman,  of  studious  habits,  inoffensive  deportment,  and  good 
family.  He  married  the  widow  of  Mrs.  Gen.  Washington's  son 
by  her  first  husband  ;  and  becoming  from  this  connexion  inti 
mate  in  the  family,  by  his  uniform  integrity  and  irreproachable 
life,  engaged,  and  preserved  in  a  remarkable  degree,  Gen.  Wash 
ington's  confidence  and  friendship.  A  recorded  proof  of  this  tra 
ditionary  fact,  may  be  found  in  Marshall's  life  of  Washington  ;* 
and  as  the  subject  there  treated  forms  one  point  in  Mr.  Jefferson's 
second  explanation  of  ihis  letter  to  Mazzei,  the  following  quota 
tions  are  doubly  apposite.  "  Not  long  after  the  government  came 
into  operation,  Dr.  Stuart,  a  gentleman  nearly  connected  with 
the  President  in  friendship  and  by  marriage,  addressed  to  him 
a  letter  stating  the  accusations  which  were  commonly  circulat 
ing  in  Virginia  on  various  subjects,  and  especially  against  the 
regal  manners  of  those  who  administered  the  affairs  of  the  na 
tion."  Gen.  Washington's  answer  to  this  letter  is  succeeded 
by  the  following  passage.!  "  In  a  subsequent  letter  written  to 
the  same  gentleman,  after  his  levees  had  been  openly  censured 
by  the  enemies  of  the  administration,  he  thus  expressed  himself; 
"  Before  the  custom  was  established  which  now  accommodates 
foreign  characters,  strangers,  and  others,  who  from  motives  of 
curiosity,  respect  to  the  chief  magistrate,  or  any  other  cause,  are 
induced  to  call  upon  me,  I  was  unable  to  attend  to  any  business 
whatever.  For  gentlemen,  consulting  their  own  convenience, 
rather  than  mine,  were  calling  from  the  time  I  rose  from  break 
fast — often  before — until  I  sat  down  to  dinner.  This,  as  I  re 
solved  not  to  neglect  my  public  duties,  reduced  me  to  the  choice 
of  one  of  these  alternatives  ;  either  to  refuse  them  altogether,  or 
to  appropriate  a  time  for  the  reception  of  them.  The  first  would, 
I  well  knew  be  disgusting  to  many — the  latter  I  expected,  would 
undergo  animadversion  from  those  who  would  find  fault,  with  or 
without  cause.  I  therefore  adopted  that  line  of  conduct  which 
combined  public  advantage  with  private  convenience,  and  which 
in  my  judgment  was  unexceptionable  in  itself.  These  visits  are 
optional.  They  are  made  without  invitation.  Between  the 
hours  of  three  and  four,  every  Tuesday  I  am  prepared  to  receive 
them.  Gentlemen,  often  in  great  numbers,  come  and  go; — 
chat  with  each  other  and  act  as  they  please.  A  porter  shows 
them  into  the  room  ;  and  they  return  from  it  when  they  choose, 

*  Vol.  5.  p.  163.  t  p.  165. 


93 

and  without  ceremony.  At  their  first  entrance  they  salute  me, 
and  I  them,  and  as  many  as  I  can  talk  to,  I  do.  What  pomp 
there  is  in  all  this  I  am  unable  to  discover." 

These  extracts,  while  they  show  the  intimacy  which  subsisted 
between  Gen.  Washington  and  Dr.  Stuart,  afford  an  exact  ac 
count  of  a  social  observance,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  distorts  into  a 
form  of  government,  and  of  which  his  correction  consisted  in 
diminishing  its  frequency.  For  on  New  Year's  day,  the  4th  of 
March,  and  the  4th  of  July,  he  and  his  successors,  besides  the 
weekly  levees  of  the  Lady,  have  continued  to  hold  these  harm 
less  re-unions. 

His  own  positive  denial  of  the  statement  derived  by  Mr. 
Pickering  from  Dr.  Stuart,  is  attempted  to  be  confirmed  by  posi 
tions,  which  although  of  no  great  force,  tend  rather  to  weaken  it. 
He  suggests  that  in  as  much  as  the  '  lost  diary'  related  to  trans 
actions  during  the  presidency  of  Washington,  and  the  '  pretend 
ed  correspondence'  could  not  have  taken  place  until  after-  his 
presidency,  the  mentioning  these  two  subjects  together,  betrays 
malice  and  falsehood  in  the  statement.  Whereas,  this  apparent 
incongruity  shows  that  the  assertion  was  founded  on  facts  either 
actual  or  supposed,  and  was  not  fabricated  in  a  shape  designed 
to  slide  it  into  credit — was  not  in  fact  prepared  from  a  press 
copy.  Political  zeal  which  he  ascribed  in  an  equal  degree  to 
Dr.  Stuart  and  Mr.  Pickering,  though  it  leads  men  to  draw 
false  inferences,  is  not  supposed  to  make  them  misstate  facts. 
If  that  were  the  case,  zeal  alone,  would  be  sufficient  to  discredit 
every  assertion  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  relation  to  the  conduct  of  the 
federal  party,  not  only  in  the  letter  under  consideration,  but  in 
his  four  volumes. 

If  Dr.  Stuart  made  the  assertion  at  all,  as  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  from  the  nature  of  the  circumstances  connected 
with  the  subject  of  it,  from  the  existence  of  an  impression  to 
that  effect  among  the  friends  of  Gen.  Washington  at  the  time, 
and  from  the  positive  and  public  declaration  of  a  man  of  dis 
tinguished  character  and  admitted  veracity,  it  is  impossible  to 
conceive  that  in  doing  so,  he  "welcomed  fancies  for  facts"- 
or  dealt  in  "  suspicions,  suppositions,  or  presumptions."  He 
must  have  made  a  deliberate  statement — which  in  the  nature 
of  things,  must  have  been  either  positively  true,  or  absolutely 
false.  And  Mr.  Jefferson  in  treating  it  as  a  fancy,  a  suspicion, 
and  a  supposition,  discovers  how  apprehensive  he  was  of  its 
force  in  a  direct  and  tangible  shape. 

The  next  passage  proper  for  consideration,  respects  the  letter  to 
Mazzei.  and  is  as  follows.  "  Now  Gen.  Washington  perfctly  un- 


94 

i 

derstood  what  I  meant  by  these  forms,  as  they  were  frequent  sub 
jects  of  conversation  between  us.  When,  on  my  return  from 
Europe,  I  joined  the  government  in  March,  1790,  at  New- York, 
I  was  much  astonished,  indeed,  at  the  mimicry  I  found  estab 
lished,  of  royal  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  more  alarmed  at  the 
unexpected  phenomenon,  by  the  monarchical  sentiments  I  heard 
expressed  and  openly  maintained  in  every  company  ;  and  among 
others,  by  the  high  members  of  the  government,  executive  and 
judiciary,  (Gen.  Washington  alone  excepted,)  and  by  a  great 
part  of  the  Legislature,  save  only  some  members  who  had  been 
of  the  old  Congress,  and  a  very  few  of  recent  introduction.  I 
took  occasion  at  various  times,  of  expressing  to  Gen.  Washington, 
my  disappointment  at  these  symptoms  of  a  change  of  principle, 
and  that  I  thought  them  encouraged  by  the  forms  and  ceremonies 
which  I  found  prevailing,  not  at  all  in  character  with  the  sim 
plicity  of  republican  government,  and  looking  as  if  wishfully  to 
those  of  European  Courts.  His  general  explanations  were,  that 
when  he  arrived  at  New- York,  to  enter  on  the  Executive  admin 
istration  of  the  new  government,  he  observed  to  those  who  were 
to  assist  him,  that  placed  as  he  was  in  an  office  entirely  new  to  him, 
unacquainted  with  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  other  govern 
ments,  still  less  apprised  of  those  which  might  be  properly  estab 
lished  here,  and  himself  perfectly  indifferent  to  all  forms,  he  wished 
them  to  consider  and  prescribe  what  they  should  be ;  and  the 
task  was  assigned  particularly  to  Gen.  Knox,  a  man  of  parade, 
and  to  Col.  Humphreys,  who  had  resided  some  time  at  a  foreign 
court.  They,  he  said,  were  the  authors  of  the  present  regulations, 
and  that  others  were  proposed  so  highly  strained  that  he  absolutely 
rejected  them.  Attentive  to  the  difference  of  opinion  prevailing 
on  this  subject,  when  the  term  of  his  second  election  arrived  he 
called  the  heads  of  Departments  together  ;  observed  to  them  the 
situation  in  which  he  had  been  at  the  commencement  of  the 
government,  the  advice  he  had  taken,  and  the  course  he  had 
observed  in  compliance  with  it ;  that  a  proper  occasion  had  now 
arrived  of  reviewing  that  course,  of  correcting  in  it  any  particulars, 
not  approved  by  experience  ;  and  desired  us  to  consult  together, 
agree  on  any  changes  we  should  think  for  the  better,  and  that  he 
should  willingly  conform  to  what  we  should  advise.  We  met  at 
my  office.  Hamilton  and  myself  agreed  at  once,  that  there  was 
too  much  ceremony,  for  the  character  of  our  government ;  and 
particularly,  that  the  parade  of  the  installation  at  New- York  ought 
not  to  be  copied  on  the  present  occasion,  that  the  President  should 
desire  the  chief-justice  to  attend  him  at  his  Chambers,  that  he 
should  administer  the  oath  of  office  to  him  in  the  presence  ofthe 


95 

higher  officers  of  the  government,  and  that  the  certificate  of  the 
Tact  should  be  delivered  to  the  Secretary  of  State  to  be  recorded. 
Randolph  and  Knox  differed  from  us,  the  latter  vehemently. 
They  thought  it  not  advisable  to  change  any  of  the  established 
forms  ;  and  we  authorised  Randolph  to  report  our  opinions  to  the 
President.  As  these  opinions  were  divided,  and  no  positive  advice 
given  as  to  any  change,  no  change  was  made.  Thus  the  forms 
which  I  had  censured  in  my  letter  to  Mazzei,  were  perfectly 
understood  by  Gen.  Washington,  and  were  those  which  he  him 
self  but  barely  tolerated.  He  had  furnished  me  a  proper  occasion 
for  proposing  their  reformation,  and  my  opinion  not  prevailing, 
he  knew  I  could  not  have  meant  any  part  of  the  censure  for  him." 

These  conversations — which  are  perfectly  inconclusive  in 
regard  to  the  point  for  the  maintenance  of  which  they  are  ad 
duced — if  they  ever  took  place,  are  probably  misrepresented,  for 
this  among  other  reasons,  that  they  are  inconsistent  with  the 
statements  of  the  principal  interlocutors,  upon  the  same  subject. 
In  the  letter  to  Dr.  Stuart  which  has  been  already  cited,  Gen. 
Washington  declares  that  he  found  himself  compelled  by  the  in 
cessant  calls  of  visitors,  "  either  to  refuse  them  altogether,  or  to 
appropriate  a  time  for  their  reception."  And  that  he  adopted  the 
latter  branch  of  the  alternative  "  because  it  combined  public  ad 
vantage  with  private  convenience,  and  was  in  his  own  judgment 
unexceptionable."  Here  is  nothing  like  a  system  formally  pre- 
established,  after  a  grave  consultation  with  the  officers  of  govern 
ment,  and  a  solemn  reference  to  "  men  of  parade."  Its  adoption 
was,  evidently,  neither  sudden  nor  theoretical,  but  progressive 
and  experimental,  the  icsult  of  his  daily  observation,  and  so  far 
from  being  a  compliance  with  the  pompous  predilections  of  others, 
was  the  deliberate  choice  of  his  own  mind. 

This  account  of  the  levees  is  irrefragable,  since  if  it  could  be 
supposed  possible  that  Gen.  Washington  could  have  been  be 
trayed  into  a  mis-statement  of  fact,  the  circumstances  under 
which  he  was  writing  to  Dr.  Stuart  were  of  a  character  to  in 
duce  him,  rather  to  attribute  these  obnoxious  observances  to  the 
suggestions  of  others,  than  to  his  own  determination. 

As  for  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  introduction  to  the  Anas,  (Vol.  4. 
p.  446.)  he  carefully  enumerates  the  circumstances  in  the  politi 
cal  situation  of  the  government  which,  at  his  arrival  in  New- 
York  at  the  very  period  in  question,  excited  as  he  says,  his  won 
der  and  mortification  ;"  yet  he  makes  not  the  most  distant  allu 
sion  to  these  levees,  or  to  any  conversation  with  the  President 
respecting  them.  Again — this  conversation  is  not  reported  in 
his  diary,  nor  is  the  formal  reference  to  the  Cabinet  or  meeting  of 


96 

its  members  at  his  office,  noted  in  his  memoranda  ;  although  for 
the  month  of  November,  1793,  "  when,  the  second  term  of  Gen. 
Washington's  election  had  arrived,"  seven  long  conferences,  five 
different  meetings  at  the  President's,  and  one  short  silly  and  slan 
derous  memorandum,  are  recorded. 

Besides  these  various  inconsistencies  and  contradictions,  there 
is  in  his  account  to  Mr.  Van  Buren,  internal  evidence  of  its  be 
ing  fabulous.  He  declares  that  as  early  as  March,  1790,  the 
principal  persons  in  the  government  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
Executive,  the  Legislature,  and  the  Judiciary — the  very  men,  by 
the  way,  who  had  just  been  engaged  in  forming  the  Con 
stitution,  and  prevailing  on  the  nation  to  adopt  it,  were  in 
every  company \  open  advocates  for  monarchy  !  He  excepts 
from  this  comprehensive  attainder  only  Gen.  Washington,  who 
as  we  have  seen  was  the  avowed  institutor  of  the  terrible  levees, 
"  some  members  of  the  Legislature  who  had  been  of  the  old 
Congress  and  very  few  of  recent  introduction."  Out  of  this 
small  number  of  members  of  the  old  Congress,  Adams,  who 
was  Vice-President,  and  Jay  Chief-justice,  are  to  be  taken  :  for  he 
denounces  them  both  repeatedly,  as  determined  monarchists. 
So  that  nearly  every  citizen  of  eminence  and  power  in  the 
United  States,  was  a  decided  and  declared  monarchist,  in  the 
course  of  one  year  after  the  establishment  of  the  government, 
except  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  who  neither  assisted  in  framing  the 
republican  government,  under  which  we  live,  nor  in  recommend 
ing  it  to  the  people,  and  who  was  far  from  approving  its  principal 
features.  Can  any  man  who  recalls  the  names,  and  recollects  the 
actions  of  these  great  patriots,  believe  this — or  tell,  if  he  believes 
Mr.  Jefferson,  what  saved  us  from  a  monarchy  ? 

He  makes  Gen.  Washington,  in  explaining  the  origin  of  the 
levees,  assign  as  their  proximate  cause,  the  facts  of  Gen.  Knox 
being  "  a  man  of  parade,"  and  Col.  Humphreys  having  resided 
at  a  foreign  court.  If  Gen.  Washington,  who  was  so  delicately 
respectful  to  the  character  of  others,  can  be  supposed  to  have 
uttered  such  a  remark  about  his  particular  friend  Gen.  Knox,  it 
is  too  unsuitable  to  the  occasion  to  be  credited.  For  if  he  knew 
Gen.  Knox  to  be  "  a  man  of  parade,"  and  thought  Col.  Hum 
phreys  had  become  so  from  his  residence  at  a  foreign  court,  he 
must  have  known,  that  by  submitting  the  question  of  "  forms  and 
ceremonies  "  to  them,  he  was  sure  of  having  a  pompous  and 
high-toned  system  adopted.  This  would  be  saying  to  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  I  am  indifferent  about  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  like 
you  prefer  the  most  simple  ones ;  but  on  settling  a  system 
for  our  government,  1  adopted  the  very  means  which  1  well 


knew  would  ensure  the  establishment  of  the  most  cumbrous 
and  regal  etiquette  that  the  persons  around  me  could  devise. 

Further,  in  his  intercourse  with  others,  Gen.  Washington  was 
perfectly  well-bred,  dignified,  and  courteous.  Is  it  then  reasona 
ble  to  suppose  that  in  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  respect 
ing  a  custom  to  which  he  himself  was  not  friendly,  and  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  averse,  he  would  trace  it  reproachfully  to  the  fact 
of  one  of  its  authors  having  resided  at  a  foreign  court,  when  Mr. 
Jefferson  had  just  returned  from  a  long  diplomatic  residence 
at  a  foreign  court,  and  from  employment  as  minister  to  two  of  the 
most  powerful  monarchies  in  Europe.  (Vol.  2.  p.  4.) 

Again,  after  insisting  that  the  levees,  &c.  were  "  monarchical 
forms  of  government,"  and  as  such  censurable  and  dangerous, 
he  here  says  he  represented  them  to  the  President  as  ceremonies, 
encouraging,  on  his  part,  the  monarchical  sentiments  openly 
and  every  where  expressed,  by  the  higher  officers  of  every 
branch  of  the  government,  and  as  contrary  to  the  simplicity  of 
republican  institutions.  And  although  he  puts  a  long  string  of 
observations  in  the  General's  mouth  on  these  ceremonies,  both  in. 
the  letter  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  the  introduction  to  the  Anas,  he 
makes  him  say  not  a  word  about  the  important  and  startling 
fact — which  he  communicated,  (v.  4.  p.  403.)  that  the  principal 
men  in  every  branch  of  the  government,  with  few  exceptions 
were  open  and  avowed  monarchists. 

Mr.  Jefferson  repeatedly  asserts,  notwithstanding  all  his  insin 
uations  to  the  contrary— in  this  letter  to  Mr.  Van  Buren,  (v.  4. 
p.  406.)  in  a  previous  one  to  Dr.  Jones,  (p.  237)  and  in  the  intro 
duction  to  his  memorable  Anas,  (p.  450)  that  Gen.  Washington 
"was  no  monarchist,"  "was  true  to  the  republican  charge  confided 
to  him,"  and  "determined  to  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood  in  its 
defence."  Can  it  then  be  deemed  morally  possible  that  Washing 
ton  could  have  received  with  indifference  under  any  circumstan 
ces  at  any  time,  or  on  any  occasion,  such  intelligence  from  his 
prime  minister  ; — that  he  would  have  dilated  on  the  encouraging 
forms,  and  been  silent  as  to  the  deadly  substance  of  treason,  by 
which  his  country  was  menaced  and  he  himself  was  surrounded. 
That  he  could  neither  have  perceived,  nor  learned  the  prevalence 
of  these  monarchical  predilections,  in  the  officers  of  Government 
associated  with  him,  and  in  the  circle  of  his  particular  friends, 
without  the  expression  of  mortification  and  astonishment — is 
undeniable,  from  the  repeated  admissions  of  Mr.  Jefferson  him 
self,  as  well  as  from  Washington's  uniform  character,  and  the  te 
nor  of  his  whole  life.  And  that  had  they  been  uttered  by  him  at 
any  period  in  presence  of  (hat  careful  Annalisf,  to  suppose  that 

13 


98 

they  would  not  have  been  repeated  and  exaggerated  both  in  this 
letter  to  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  at  all  other  opportunities,  is  to  wan 
der  extravagantly  into  a  new  hypothesis  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
words  and  spirit  of  this  letter,  and  of  all  Mr.  Jefferson's  political 
writings  ;  to  the  malicious  nature  of  his  political  ambition ;  and  to 
the  entire  system  of  measures  by  which  Jie  promoted  its  gratifi 
cation. 

In  addition — these  odious  and  alarming  forms,  which  Gen* 
Washington  is  represented  to  have  adopted  from  a  venial,  if  not 
a  culpable  facility,  we  are  assured,  he  formally  referred  to  a  coun 
cil  of  his  official  advisers  ;  in  which  Hamilton,  the  chief  of  the 
Monarchists,  by  the  success  of  whose  arts,  and  to  advance  whose 
projects  they  had  been  introduced,  is  the  first  man  to  join  Mr. 
Jefferson  in  condemning  them,  and  in  advising,  especially,  the 
discontinuance  of  the  principal  one,  the  inauguration  of  the  Pre 
sident,  in  presence  of  both  houses  of  Congress. 

This  advice  too  was  persisted  in  by  Hamilton,  when  he  knew 
that  by  concurring  with  Knox  and  Randolph,  he  would  have  en 
sured  the  preservation  of  these  regal  forms,  and  that  by  siding 
with  Mr.  Jefferson  he  decreed  their  instant  abolition. 

Finally — this  greatest  of  all  abuses,  this  inevitable  forerunner 
of  kingly  government,  has  been  maintained  in  full  vigour  ever 
since,  and  was  punctually  observed  in  the  inauguration  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  himself,  who  it  seems,  6n  two  occasions,  forgot  to  "desire 
the  Chief  Justice  to  attend  him,  at  his  chambers" — although  by 
that  omission  in  his  own  conscientious  belief,  he  endangered  the 
existence  of  the  Institutions,  which  on  both  occasions,  he  swore 
"to  preserve,  maintain,  and  defend." 

But  all  this  compound  of  sophistry  and  fiction,  is  here,  out  of 
respect  for  the  reputed  authority  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  gratuitously 
exposed,  as  it  is  totally  inapplicable  to  the  point  at  issue.  Mr. 
Jefferson  confesses  and  insists  that  the  letter  was  published  in  the 
American  papers  with  the  word  form  instead  of  forms,  and  he 
assures  Mr.  Van  Buren  in  the  most  earnest  and  solemn  manner, 
defying  not  only  Mr.  Pickering  (who,  as  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  de 
sired  not  to  publish  his  letter,  could  never  hear  of  his  defiance) 
and  Dr.  Stuart  (who  had  been  dead  at  least  ten  years,)  but  all 
mankind,  to  contradict  him,  "that  not  a  word  written,  or  verbal, 
directly  or  indirectly,  ever  passed  between  Gen.  Washington  and 
himself  on  the  subject  of  this  letter  to  Mazzei."  If  this  was  the 
case,  and  if  the  substitution  of  the  word  form  for  forms  changed 
the  direction  of  his  censure  from  the  ceremonies  of  levees,  &c.  to 
the  principles  of  our  government — made  him  instead  of  repro 
bating  birth  night  balls  "express  hostility  to  the  constitution  itself" 
how  was  it  possible  for  Gen.  Washington  to  "understand  perfectly" 


99 

the  forms  which  he  had  censured  in  his  letter  to  Mazzei  ?  So 
that  if  Mr.  Jefferson's  earnest  and  repeated  assurances  are  to  be 
credited — it  was  impossible  for  Gen.  Washington  to  have  had  the 
least  knowledge  of  a  subject,  which  the  same  Mr.  Jefferson  as 
serts  he  perfectly  understood.  To  support  one  part  of  his  expla 
nation  he  solemnly  affirms  that  the  word  forms  as  used  in  his 
original  letter  to  Mazzei,  Gen.  Washington  never  saw,  nor  heard 
of,  nor  conceived,  nor  inquired  about ;  while  to  fortify  another, 
he  asseverates  that  "the  forms  which  he  had  censured  in  his 
letter  to  Mazzei,  were  perfectly  understood  by  Gen.  Washington, 
and  were  those  which  he  himself  but  barely  tolerated." 

It  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that  at  this  stage  of  the  inves 
tigation,  the  effect  of  contrast  will  recall  to  your  attention,  the 
explanation  that  was  fabricated  for  the  era  of  1797,  and  for  the 
use  and  abuse  of  Mr.  Madison.  In  that  it  was  strenuously  urged, 
as  an  insurmountable  obstacle  to  a  fair  explanation  or  an  honest 
acknowledgment  of  the  letter  in  its  genuine  shape,  that  the  cor 
rection  of  the  word  form  into  forms  could  not  possibly  be  effected 
without  bringing  on  "a  personal  difference  with  Gen.  Washing 
ton."  But  here,  in  1824,  it  is  solemnly  declared,  by  the  same 
high  and  competent  authority,  that  Gen.  Washington  was  per 
fectly  familiar  with  the  phrase  in  question,  completely  understood 
its  meaning,  had  conferred  with  Mr.  Jefferson  and  consulted  his 
Cabinet  on  the  subject  of  it,  and  was  necessarily  satisfied  that  no 
part  of  the  censure  it  conveyed  could  possibly  have  been  directed 
towards  himself! 

The  explanation  with  which  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  favoured 
thus  proceeds — "Mr.  Pickering  quotes  too  the  expression  in  the 
letter,  of  the  men  who  were  Samsons  in  the  field,  and  Solomons 
in  the  council,  but  who  had  their  heads  shorn  by  the  harlot  Eng 
land,  or,  as  expressed  in  their  retranslation,  'the  men  who  were 
Solomons  in  council  and  Samsons  in  combat,  but  whose  hair  had 
been  cut  off  by  the  whore  England.'  Now  this  expression  also 
was  perfectly  understood  by  Gen.  Washington.  He  knew  that 
I  meant  it  for  the  Cincinnati  generally,  and  that  from  what  had 
passed  between  us  at  the  commencement  of  that  institution,  I 
could  not  mean  to  include  him."  After  repeating  the  substance 
of  two  conversations  which  he  held  with  Gen.  Washington  in 
regard  to  this  institution,  and  recapitulating  the  circumstances, 
which,  preventing  its  entire  and  voluntary  dissolution,  reduced  it 
to  "its  modified  and  temporary  form,"  he  adds,  "disapproving  thus 
of  the  institution  as  much  as  I  did,  and  conscious  that  I  knew 
him  to  do  so,  he  could  never  suppose  that  I  meant  to  include  him 
among"  the  Samsons  in  the  field,  whose  object  was  to  draw  over 


100 

us  the  form-)  as  they  made  the  letter  say,  of  the  British  govern 
ment,  and  especially  its  aristocratic  member,  an  hereditary  House 
of  Lords." 

Here  you  will  perceive  is  a  new  version  of  his  letter  to  Mazzei 
— confirming  by  its  author's  own  express  admission  the  interpre 
tation  I  have  given  to  the  word/orw,  whether  used  in  the  singu 
lar  or  the  plural.  It  seems  at  last  that  the  word  forms,  which 
had  been  so  grievously  mistranslated  by  "  federal  malice,"  into 
form,  really  meant  the  forms,  or  members  of  the  British  go 
vernment  ;  that  instead  of  court  ceremonies,  these  forms  were 
intended  to  signify  the  political  institutions,  and  especially  the 
hereditary  peerage  of  England  !  What  becomes  then  of  all  the 
pother  about,  the  miraculous  alteration  which  the  "  change  of  the 
plural  into  the  singular,  effects  in  that  phrase  of  the  English  lan 
guage  ?" 

When  you  recollect  that  in  the  very  last  communication  that 
ever  "  passed  between  Gen.  Washington  and  Mr.  Jefferson  on 
the  subject  of  the  Cincinnati,"  the  latter  had  declared,  (V.  2.  p. 
62.)  "  I  know  the  society  wish  the  permanence  of  our  govern 
ments,  as  much  as  any  individual  composing  them,"  this  as 
serted  probability  of  Gen.  Washington's  feeling  assured  that  an 
insinuation  by  Mr.  Jefferson  of  a  design  to  overthrow  our  govern 
ment,  so  far  from  being  directed  towards  him,  was  "  meant  for 
the  Cincinnati  generally,"  will  strike  you  doubtless  as  singularly 
felicitous. 

On  this  part  of  the  subject  it  is  unnecessary  to  waste  more  time 
by  referring  to  the  elaborate  and  "  true  history"  of  this  institution, 
which  is  cited  in  a  former  letter,*  or  by  enlarging  on  the  absurdity 
of  supposing  that  Mazzei  or  any  one  else  in  the  old  or  in  the  new 
world,  could  divine  that  the  reproach  and  calumny,  respecting 
"  the  Samsons  in  combat  and  Solomons  in  council"  contained 
in  the  letter,  was  intended  for  the  Cincinnati ;  or  that  Gen.  Wash 
ington  who  was  actually  their  President,  would  on  that  supposi- 
t  ion  feel  himself  exempt  from  its  censure.  For  there  is  one  fact 
that  seems  not  to  have  been  attended  to  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the 
glow  of  his  invention  and  invective  in  regard  to  this  matter,  that 
renders  all  other  objections  to  them  superfluous.  It  is  this — he 
tells  Mazzei  that  all  the  mischief  and  iniquity,  which  are  the  sub 
ject  of  his  letter,  the  burthen  of  his  song,  had  arisen  since  Maz- 
zei's  departure  from  the  United  States — "  since  you  left  us." 
Now  among  the  few  truths  which  are  bequeathed  to  posterity  in 

*  Letter  II. 


101 

the  "  philosophic  inspiration"  of  Jeffcrsorfs  writings,  is  the  fact, 
that  this  Florentine,  who,  like  his  countryman,  Cassio,  was 

4  A  fellow  almost  damned  in  a  fair  wife,' 

left  the  United  States  long  after  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  was 
instituted,  long  after  it  had  cast  off  its  hereditary  quality,  and  re 
ceived  its  "  modified  and  temporary  form."  For  in  a  letter  from 
Paris  to  John  Page,  (V.  1.  p.  288,)  dated  the  20th  of  August, 
1785,  Mr.  Jefferson  says,  "  I  received  your  friendly  letter  of  April 
the  28th,  by  Mazzei  on  the  22d  July."  In  one  of  the  28th  of 
August  to  Mr.  Monroe,  then  in  the  United  States,  he  says,  "  I 
wrote  you  on  the  5th  of  July  by  Mr.  Franklin,  and  on  the  12th 
of  the  same  month  by  Mr.  Iloudon.  Since  that  date  yours  of 
June  the  10th  by  Mr.  Mazzei,  has  been  received."  It  is  clear 
therefore  that  Mazzei  left  the  United  States  between  the  16th  of 
June  and  the  22d  of  July,  1785.  From  Marshall  we  learn,  that 
this  society  was  instituted  in  the  year  1783,  and  that  in  May 
1784,  the  hereditary  principle,  and  the  power  of  adopting  honora 
ry  members,  were  relinquished.*  Mr.  Jefferson  confirms  this  ac 
count  himself,  as  you  have  already  seen,  and  may  see  again  by 
turning  to  pages  223  and  416  of  his  1st  volume.  Between  his 
explanation  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  the  truth  therefore,  there  is 
interposed  by  himself  nothing  less  than  an  abyss  of  absolute  im 
possibility. 

To  render  this  not  only  evident  but  palpable,  it  is  only  necessary 
to  mark  the  train  of  causation,  and  the  succession  of  time  embra 
ced  in  his  letter  to  Mazzei.  Of  time,  the  earliest  stage  is  the  pe 
riod  of  that  personage's  departure  from  the  United  States — of  cau 
ses,  the  first  is  the  springing  up  of  an  Anglican,  monarchical, 
and  aristocratical,  party.  The  immediate  effect  of  this  cause  is 
the  "drawing  over  us  the  forms  of  the  British  government"  and 
the  secondary  one  which  is  said  to  be  in  progress  "  the  drawing 
over  us,"  its  substance  likewise.  Then  succeed,  the  enumera 
tion  of  various  "  heresies,"  "  the  Samsons  in  combat  and  the  So 
lomons  in  council,"  who  had  gone  over  to  them — these  successive 
events  all  subsequent  to  the  grand  era  of  Mazzei's  departure  from 
the  United  States — and  the  apostacy  of  the  "  Samsons  and  So 
lomons"  so  unexpected  and  shocking,  that  were  Mr.  Jefferson  to 
name  them,  it  would  give  his  Florentine  friend  "  a  fever."  Who 
ever  therefore  attaches  the  smallest  credit  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  so 
lemn  and  anxious  and  iterated  imputations  against  the  Oincin- 

|*  V.  5.  pp.  27,  30. 


102 

nati,  or  "to  this  elaborate  explanation  of  his  letter  to  Mazzei,  must 
in  all  consistency,  not  only  believe  that  effects  are  antecedent  to 
their  causes,  but  that  an  event  which  happened  in  1785 — was 
previous  in  point  of  time,  to  one  that  took  place  two  years  before. 
He  continues  to  Mr.  Van  Buren, — "  _\dd  to  this,  that  the  letter 
saying,  that  <  two  out  of  the  three  branches  of  Legislature  were 
against  us,'  was  an  obvious  exception  of  him ;  it  being  well 
known  that  the  majorities  in  the  two  branches  of  Senate  and 
Representatives  were  the  very  instruments  which  carried  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  old  and  real  republicans,  the  measures  which  were 
the  subjects  of  condemnation  in  this  letter."  Mr.  Van  Buren  is 
also  told  on  a  previous  page,  that  "  a  faithful  copy"  of  the  letter  to 
Mazzei,  so  far  as  it  related  to  politics  is  inclosed  to  him.  But  the 
"  faithful  copy"  since  given  to  the  public,  of  the  same  letter,  ad 
mits  not  the  possibility  of  excluding  Gen.  Washington  in  the 
mode  here  essayed,  for  it  says  expressly,  '-'against  us  are  the  Exe 
cutive,  the  Judiciary,  two:  out  of  three  branches  of  the  Legisla 
ture,"  &c.  Now  is  it  possible  to  conceive  that  when  a  man  ac 
cuses  the  Executive  of  the  United  States  of  treason,  he  means  to 
except  the  President  from  that  charge  ?  The  second  article  of 
the  Constitution  declares — '  The  executive  power  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  vested  in  a  President' — language  which  confirms 
the  universal  acceptation  of  the  terms.  If  then  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
press  copy  resembled  the  letter  now  published,  as  closely  as  the 
President  and  the  Executive  resemble  each  other  in  significa 
tion,  he  must  have  felt  his  credulity  not  a  little  strained  by  the 
course  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  mis-statement  and  sophistry.  It  would 
seem  therefore  not  improbable  that  as  in  the  case  of  the  letter  to 
Col.  Burr,  his  press  had  the  faculty  of  producing  dissimilar  copies 
of  the  same  document,  and  that  in  the  one  furnished  to  Mr.  Van 
Buren,  the  word  Executive  at  least  was  omitted. 
(•  a  Again — At  the  time  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  the  slander  in  question 
to  Mazzei,  the  Administration  was  in  a  minority  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  as  he  himself  observes  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madi 
son,  when  censuring  the  ratification  of  Jay's  treaty,  (V.  3.  p. 
316.)  "  For  it  certainly  is  an  attempt  of  a  party,  who  find  they 
have  lost  their  majority  in  one  branch  of  the  Legislature,  to 
make  a  law  by  the  aid  of  the  other  branch  and  the  Executive, 
&c."  Indeed,  as  early  as  the  session  of  1793,  the  opposition  ob 
tained  an  ascendancy  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  as  was 
proved  by  the  election  of  their  candidate  for  the  Speaker's  chair 
by  a  majority  of  ten  votes.* 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  p.  474. 


103 

But  independently  of  this  fact,  the  measures  principally  con 
demned  in  this  lelter,  were  not  legislative  measures  ;  they  were, 
as  Mr.  Jefferson  asserts,  the  executive  and  monarchical  levees, 
balls,  &c — and  the  aristocratical  order  of  the  Cincinnati.  So 
that  according  to  his  explanation,  the  desperate  effort  to  separate 
the  President  from  the  Executive  is  labour  in  vain. 

To  these  principal  subjects  accordingly  he  immediately  re 
curs  in  the  following  passage — "  Gen.  Washington  then,  under 
standing  perfectly  what  and  whom  I  meant  to  designate,  in  both 
phrases,"  (that  is  by  the  form  or  forms  of  the  British  govern 
ment,  and  '  the  Samsons  in  combat  and  Solomons  in  council') 
"  and  that  they  could  not  have  had  any  application  or  view  to 
himself,  could  find  in  neither  any  cause  of  offence  to  himself; 
and  therefore  neither  needed,  nor  ever  asked  any  explanation  of 
them  from  me.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  they  must  know  very 
little  of  Gen.  Washington  who  should  believe  to  be  within  the 
laws  of  his  character,  what  Dr.  Stuart  is  said  to  have  imputed  to 
him.  Be  this  however  as  it-  may,  the  story  is  infamously  false 
in  every  article  of  it.  My  last  parting  with  General  Washington 
was  at  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Adams  in  March,  1797,  and  was 
warmly  affectionate  ;  and  I  never  had  any  reason  to  believe  any 
change  on  his  part,  as  there  certainly  was  none  on  mine.  But 
one  session  of  Congress  intervened  between  that  and  his  death,  in 
the  year  following,  in  my  passage  to  and  from  which,  as  it  hap 
pened  not  to  be  convenient  to  call  on  him,  I  never  had  another 
opportunity  ;  and  as  to  the  cessation  of  correspondence  observed 
during  that  short  interval,  no  particular  circumstance  occurred  for 
epistolary  communication,  ami  both  of  us  were  too  much  oppress 
ed  with  letter  writing,  to  trouble  either  the  other  with  a  letter  about 
nothing." 

This  may  all  Jje  very  smooth  and  line,  ami  commendable,  as 
u  specimen  of  fluent  narration,  but  unfortunately,  like  most  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  deliberate  statements,  it  is  by  his  own  testimony,  to 
tally  destitute  of  truth.  You  will  observe  that  the  chief  fact  here 
relied  on  to  disprove  the  statement  of  Dr.  Stuart,  is  that  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  enjoyed,  as  far  as  he  had  reason  to  believe  the  warm  and 
affectionate  friendship  of  Gen.  Washington,  up  to  the  moment 
of  that  great  man's  death.  Now  if  we  turn  to  page  453  of  this 
same  4th  volume — where  Mr.  Jefferson  is  solemnly  recommend 
ing  the  contents  of  his  Anas  to  the  faith  of  posterity,  we  shall 
find  the  following  statement,  dated  the  4th  of  February,  1818. — 
"  The  opposition  too  of  the  Republicans  to  the  British  treaty,  and 
the  zealous  support  of  the  Federalists  in  that  unpopular  but  favour 
ite  measure  of  theirs,  had  made  him  (Gen.  Washington)  all 


104 

their  own.  Understanding  moreover  that  I  disapproved  of  that 
treaty,  and  copiously  nourished  with  falsehoods  by  a  malignant 
neighbour  of  mine,  who  ambitioned  to  be  his  correspondent,  he 
had  become  alienated  from  myself  personalty,  as  from  the 
Republican  party,  generally,  of  his  fellow-citizens."  This  posi 
tive  declaration,  similar  to  one  made  four  years  previously  to  Dr. 
Jones,  (V.  4.  p.  237.)  stamps  indelible  falsehood  on  the  story  spun 
out  so  elaborately  for  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  would  appear  to  su 
persede  all  further  notice  of  it. 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  though  he  seldom  relates  the  truth,  either 
with  regard  to  himself  or  his  adversaries,  often  suffers  it  to  tran 
spire.  Now  although  Mr.  Pickering  and  Dr.  Stuart  were  both 
men  of  veracity,  and  maintained  through  life,  (he  one,  a  respec 
table,  and  the  other  an  eminent,  reputation  ;  yet  as  the  statement 
made  successively  by  them  has  the  questionable  character  of  hear 
say,  and  is  pointedly  denied  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  it  may  perhaps  be 
supposed  by  prejudiced  minds  to  be  founded  in  error — either  that 
Dr.  Stuart  was  himself  misinformed,  or  had  been  misunderstood 
by  Mr.  Pickering.  An  attentive  examination  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
contradiction  however,  positive  and  vindictive  as  it  is,  will  con 
vince  the  most  incredulous,  that  the  veracity  of  those  two  gentle 
men  is  entirely  unimpeached  by  it,  and  that  their  statement  having 
all  the  weight  due  to  their  characters,  and  the  force  derived  from  a 
strong  contemporaneous  impression  in  its  confirmation,  known  to 
many  by  memory,  and  by  tradition  to  more,  is,  according  to  the 
established  rules  of  reasoning  in  such  cases,  to  be  received  as  ac 
curately  and  indisputably  true. 

The  objections  by  which  Mr.  Jefferson  endeavours  to  discredit 
this  statement  consist  of  assertions  of  fact,  and  of  inferences  from 
those  assertions.  But  his  assertions,  or  as  he  \voidd  say,  his 
facts,  turn  out  to  be  false,  and  consequently  authorise  a  conclusion 
as  different  from  his  inferences  as  truth  is  from  falsehood — that 
is,  they  authorise  a  full  belief  in,  instead  of  an  utter  disbelief 
which  he  insists  upon,  of  the  statement.  For  example,  he  argues 
that  as  Gen.  Washington  understood  perfectly  what  he  meant  by 
both  phrases  in  the  letter  to  Mazzei,  he  could  have  taken  no 
offence  at  either  of  them ;  and,  that  as  he  could  have  taken  no 
offence,  he  needed  no  explanation  ;  and  that  as  he  needed  no 
explanation,  he  demanded  none.  But  it  has  been  proved  to 
demonstration  on  Mr.  Jefferson's  own  authority,  that  inasmuch 
as  Gen.  Washington  had  never  seen  the  phrase — "the/ornwof 
the  British  government" — and  had  received  no  explanation  of  its 
alleged  mistranslation,  he  could  not  in  the  nature  of  things  have 
understood  it  as  Mr.  Jefferson  declares  it  was  meant ;  and  that 


105- 

from  the  limitation  of  time,  to  a  period  posterior  to  the  establish 
ment,  and  even  to  the  modification;  of  the  Cincinnati,  an  abso 
lute  impossibility  stood  in  the  way  of  his  conceiving  the  phrase 
"  Samsons  and  Solomons"  in  the  sense  assumed  and  insisted  on 
by  Mr.  Jefferson.  It  therefore  follows  in  a  chain  of  unbroken 
deduction,  connected  by  the  same  reasoning  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
employs  on  the  same  subject — that  Gen.  Washington  must  have 
taken  offence  at  "  both  phrases  ;"  that  as  he  took  offence  at  them 
tie  needed  an  explanation  ;  and  that  as  he  needed  an  explanation 
he  demanded  it.  This  conclusion  may  throw  some  additional 
light  on  "  the  lost  correspondence." 

The  insinuation  that  such  a  step  would  have  been  inconsistent 
with  "  the  laws  of  Gen.  Washington's  character,"  is  especially 
immaterial  as  coining  from  Mr.  Jefterson,  who  declares,  as  has 
been  already  remarked,  that  on  the  mere  mention  of  a  pasquin 
ade  the  object  of  which  was  to  represent  Gen.  Washington  as 
aiming  to  make  himself  king,  "  he  got  into  one  of  those  passions 
when  he  cannot  command  himself,"  and  cried  out  before  his 
whole  Cabinet,  "  that  by  God,  he  had  rather  be  in  his  grave 
than  in  his  present  situation."  (Vol.  4.  p.  491.)  Now  if  a  mere 
anonymous  lampoon  could  inflame  him  to  such  a  degree  of  fury, 
is  it  difficult  to  suppose,  or  does  it  transgress  "  the  laws  of  cha 
racter"  and  probability  to  believe,  that  an  accusation  of  the  same 
tendency,  coming  before  the  public  in  a  written  form,  from  one  of 
the  most  eminent  men  for  official  station  and  reputed  talents  in 
the  country,  a  man  who  had  all  along  professed  a  warm  and  even 
a  zealous  friendship  for  him,  and  had  a  short  time  before  con 
jured  him,  not  to  listen  to  any  information  tending  "  to  SOAV  tares 
between  them"— should  excite  his  indignation  and  resentment  1 

The  assertion  that  they  had  a  "  warmly  affectionate"  parting 
at  Philadelphia  in  March,  1797 — which  is  flatly  contradicted  by 
a  declaration  to  Dr.  Jones  (p.  237) — so  far  from  obviating  this  in 
ference,  fortifies  it ;  for  the  more  warm  had  been  Gen.  Washing 
ton's  affection  for  Mr.  Jefferson  while  he  supposed  him  to  be  his 
friend,  the  more  strong  would  be  his  indignation  at  finding  him 
his  enemy.  March,  1797,  the  period  of  Mr.  Adams's  inaugura 
tion,  was  the  precise  time  of  Gen.  Washington's,  becoming  a  pri 
vate  citizen,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  assures  us  that  the  letter  to  Mazzei 
"  was  not  known  here  until  after  he  became  a  private  citizen." 

When  to  all  these  contradictions,  mis-statements,  inconsis 
tencies,  and  false  inferences,  is  added  the  admitted  fact,  that  after 
the  publication  of  the  letter  to  Mazzei  in  the  American  papers, 
Mr.  Jefferson  held  no  correspondence  with  Gen.  Washington, 
that  from  his  own  writing*  it  appears  that  he  passed  his  house, 

14 


106 

without  calling,  at  least  six  different  times  in  going  to  and  re 
turning  from  Congress  ;  (three  sessions  instead  of  one  having  in 
tervened)  and  when  we  recollect  too,  the  real  fondness  of  the 
General,  and  the  professed  predilection  of  the  philosopher,  for 
agriculture  ;  that  the  former  had  but  lately  laid  down  the  office  of 
President  and  the  latter  assumed  that  of*Vice  President,  and  that 
in  the  interval  of  this  strict  non-intercourse,  Washington  had 
accepted  the  appointment  of  Lieutenant-General  and  Comman- 
der-in-Chief  of  the  American  army,  an  event  that  attracted  the 
attention  of  Europe* —  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion 
that  an  estrangement  had  arisen  between  them.  Mr.  Jefferson 
protests  to  Mr.  Van  Bur  en  that  "  no  change  had  taken  place  on 
his  part."  It  follows  then  that  it  occurred  on  the  part  of  Gen. 
Washington — that  he  was  indignant  at  finding  himself  the  sport 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  malicious  hypocrisy — that  he  had  imprudently 
confided  in  his  insincere  professions,  and  too  long  neglected  the 
faithful  counsels  of  his  friend  Gen.  Lee. 

This  subject  being  now  disposed  of,  (though  it  might  have 
been  despatched  in  a  less  tedious  manner  but  for  the  huge  dispro 
portion  between  Mr.  Jefferson's  virtues  and  popularity)  you  will  1 
think  be  convinced  that  not  only  are  the  two  explanations  of  his 
letter  to  Mazzei  inconsistent  with  each  other,  but  that  each  of 
them  separately  is  inconsistent  with  truth.  You  will  also  I  ap 
prehend  be  compelled  to  conclude,  that  the  imputations  contained 
in  that  letter,  upon  Gen.  Washington  and  his  principal  friends, 
were  unfounded  in  fact  and  calumnious  in  spirit ;  that  the  equi 
vocating  refusal  to  avow  and  explain  it,  betrayed  at  once  pusillani 
mity,  and  malice  ;  and  that  the  gross  and  deliberate  mis-state 
ments  by  which  it  is  justified,  first  to  Mr.  Madison,  and  last  to 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  are  sufficient  to  deprive  Mr.  Jefferson's  most 
solemn  assertions,  in  all  cases  in  which  his  interests  are  con 
cerned,  or  his  passions  enlisted,  of  the  slightest  claim  whatever  to 
credit. 


LETTER  VIII. 

WE  have  at  length  reached  the  point  of  time,  in  the  progress  of 
this  tasteless  but  not  unfruitful  investigation,  at  which  the  letter 
that  gave  occasion  to  it,  was  written.  In  pursuing  it  you  will 
find,  that  notwithstanding  the  professions  of  friendship,  rcsjrcct, 

*  Mcmoircs  dc  Napoleon,  tome  2.  p.  110.     (Courgaud.) 


10T 

meditation,  and  retirement ;  notwithstanding  the  new  declaration 
of  fidelity  and  devotion  which  it  was  intended  to  prefer  to  Gen. 
Washington,  and  the  new  grant  of  confidence  which  it  actually 
extracted  from  him ;  the  same  deceitful  and  injurious  practices, 
which  have  been  already  exposed,  were  unrelentingly  persevered 
in  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  On  the  10th  of  July,  less  than  one  month 
subsequently,  he  thus  broadly  insinuates  to  Mr.  Monroe  (V.  3. 
p.  335.)  that  Gen.  Washington  is  a  monarchist  and  a  man  of 
duplicity.  "  They  see  that  nothing  can  support  them  but  the 
Colossus  of  the  President's  merits  with  the  people,  and  the  mo 
ment  he  retires,  that  his  successor,  if  a  inoiiocrat,  will  be  overborne 
by  the  republican  sense  of  his  constituents ;  if  a  republican,  he 
will  of  course  give  fair  play  to  that  sense,  and  lead  things  into 
harmony  between  the  governors  and  governed."  "  Most  assi 
duous  court  is  paid  to  Patrick  Henry.  He  has  been  offered  every 
thing  which  they  knew  he  would  not  accept." 

Now  although  Mr.  Jefferson  often  attempts  to  prevent  the  re 
coil  of  his  slanders  on  Gen.  Washington,  by  pretending  to 
separate  him  from  his  cabinet ;  representing  him,  as  "  misled," 
"  played  off,"  &c.  by  Hamilton  and  others,  in  this  case  that  ridi 
culous  stratagem  is  eminently  unavailing,  as  Gen.  Washington, 
clearly  described  as  a  monarchist  in  the  first  sentence,  was  the 
very  individual  who  was  paying  the  "  court"  which  is  denounced 
as  perfidious  in  the  second.  For  on  the  llth  of  January,  1796, 
Gen.  Washington  wrote  to  Gen.  Lee,  who  he  knew  was  on  the 
most  intimate  terms  with  Mr.  Henry,  the  following  note  :* 

"My  dear  Sir — Your  letter  of  the  26th  ult.  has  been  received,  but 
nothing  from  you  since ;  which  is  embarrassing  im  the  extreme ;  for 
not  only  the  nomination  of  Chief  Justice,  but  an  associate  Judge, 
and  Secretary  of  War,  is  suspended  on  the  answer  you  were  to  re 
ceive  from  Mr.  Henry ;  and  what  renders  the  want  of  it  more  to 
be  regretted  is,  that  the  first  Monday  of  next  month  (which 
happens  on  the  first  day  of  it)  is  the  term  appointed  by  law  for 
the  meeting  of  the  Superior  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  this 
city  ;  at  which,  for  particular  reasons,  the  bench  ought  to  be  full. 
I  will  add  no  more  at  present  than  that,  I  am  your  affectionate, 

"  GEO.  WASHINGTON." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison  of  the  22d  January  1797,  (V.  3. 
p.  347.)  Mr.  Jefferson  says — "  I  do  not  believe  Mr.  Adams  wishes 
war  with  France  ;  nor  do  I  believe  he  will  truckle  to  England 
as  servilely  as  has  been  done.'11  Feb.  9th  (p.  350.)  to  James 

*  In  MS. 


108 

Sullivan.  "  Still  there,  I  believe,  and  here,  I  am  sure,  the  great 
mass  is  republican,  nor  do  any  of  the  forms  in  which  the  public 
disposition  has  been  pronounced  in  the  last  half  dozen  years, 
evince  the  contrary.  All  of  them,  when  traced  to  their  tine 
source,  have  only  been  evidences  of  the  preponderant  popularity 
of  a  particular  great  character.  That  influence  once  withdrawn, 
and  our  countrymen  left  to  the  operation  of  their  unbiassed  good 
sense,  I  have  no  doubt  we  shall  see  a  pretty  rapid  return  of  ge 
neral  harmony,  and  our  citizens  moving  in  phalanx  in  the  path 
of  regular  liberty,  order,  and  a  sacrosanct  adherence  to  the  Con 
stitution." 

Here  the  well-earned  popularity,  the  pure  and  meritorious 
influence  of  Gen.  Washington,  is  assigned  as  the  cause  of  public 
disorder,  of  obstruction  to  liberty,  and  of  the  departure  of  his 
fellow-citizens  from  the  constitution  of  the  country  ;  this  too,  with 
the  duplicated  epithet  sacrosanct  prefixed,  by  the  very  man  who 
two  years  before  had  countenanced  the  western  insurrection,  and 
had  vehemently  declared  that  the  Constitution,  against  the  do 
minion  of  which  it  was  directed,  authorised  the  enactment  of  "  an 
infernal  law." 

In  a  letter  to  Gen.  Gates,  of  the  30th  of  May,  (p.  354.)  Mr. 
JefTerson  draws  the  following  parallel  between  the  policy  of  Gen. 
Washington,  and  that  of  the  contemporaneous  British  ministry. 
(( I  wish  any  events  could  induce  us  to  cease  to  copy  such  a 
model,  and  to  assume  the  dignity  of  being  original.  They  had 
their  paper  systems,  stock-jobbing,  speculations,  public  debt, 
moneyed  interest.  &c.,  and  all  this  was  contrived  for  us.  They 
raised  their  cry  Against  Jacobins  and  revolutionists  ;  we  against 
democratic  societies  and  anti-federalists  ;  their  alarmists  sound 
ed  insurrection,  ours  marched  an  army  to  look  for  one,  but 
could  not  find  it."  In  a  letter  to  Col.  Burr,  of  the  17th  June,  (p. 
357.)  from  which  a  passage  has  been  already  extracted,*  he  de 
nounces  "  the  ungrateful  predilection"  of  Washington  for  Great 
Britain,  although,  as  you  will  remember,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Van 
Buren  he  declares,  that  the  objectionable  measures  of  the  general 
government  duringt  his  period,  were  dictated  not  by  the  Executive, 
but  by  majorities  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress. 

The  same  offensive  spirit  breaks  out  in  a  letter  to  Arthur  Camp- 
_bell:  (Vol.  3.  p.  364.)  and  still  more  invidiously  in  one  to  Mr.  Mad 
ison,  (p.  373.)  In  the  first,  dated  the  1st  of  September,  1797,  six 
months  subsequent  to  President  Washington's  retirement  from  of 
fice,  Mr.  Jefferson  in  reference  to  the  federal  party  thus  exultsin  the 

*  See  Letter  3. 


109 

success  of  his  efforts  to  lessen  Washington's  popularity  ;  "  Hitherto 
their  influence  and  their  system  have  been  irresistible,  and  they  have 
raised  up  an  executive  power  which  is  too  strong  for  the  legisla 
ture.  But  I  flatter  myself  they  have  passed  their  zenith.  The 
people,  while  these  things  were  doing,  were  lulled  into  rest  and 
security  from  a  cause  which  no  longer  exists.  No  prepossessions 
now  will  shut  their  ears  to  truth.  They  begin  to  see  to  what  port 
their  leaders  were  steering  during  their  slumbers,"  &c.  In  the 
second,  of  the  15th  of  February,  1798,  the  following  language 
is  held.  "  A  great  ball  is  to  be  given  here  on  the  22d,  and  in 
other  great  towns  of  the  Union.  This  is,  at  least,  very  indelicate, 
and  probably  excites  uneasy  sensasions  in  some.  I  see  in  it, 
however  this  useful  deduction,  that  the  birth  days  which  have 
been  kept,  have  been,  not  those  of  the  President,  but  of  the  Gene 
ral  ;"  and  again,  to  the  same,  March  2d,  (p.  377.)  "  The  late 
birth-night  has  certainly  sown  tares,  among  the  exclusive 
federalists.  The  sincerely  Adamsites  did  not  go.  The  Washing  - 
tonians  went  religiously,  and  took  the  secession  of  the  others  in 
high  dudgeon.  The  one  sect  threatens  to  desert  the  levees,  the 
other,  the  parties.  The  Whigs  went  in  numbers,  to  encourage 
the  idea  that  the  birth-nights  hitherto  kept  had  been  for  the  Gene 
ral,  and  not  the  President,  and  of  course,  that  time  would  bring 
an  end  to  them."  From  this  we  are  to  understand,  that  the 
Adamsites  who  kept  aloof,  were  the  sound  grain,  and  the  friends 
who  out  of  respect  and  veneration  for  Washington,  attended  the 
birth-night  ball,  were  the  chaff,  of  the  federal  party.  For,  inde 
pendently  of  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  terms,  among  these  last, 
were  Hamilton,  Jay,  Knox,  and  all  those,  whom  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  stigmatised  as  unprincipled  politicians,  as  Monarchists, 
Anglomen,  and  Corruptionists  ;  and  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Madison, 
(already  quoted,  p.  347.)  he  had  declared  his  belief  that  Mr. 
Adams  would  make  a  better  president  than  Gen.  Washington 
had  been — "  would  not  truckle  to  England  as  servilely  as  had 
been  done." 

It  appears  indeed,  that  he  could  not  behold  without  chagrin  and 
envy,  this  harmless  evidence  of  popular  respect  for  the  services  of 
the  citizen  whose  wisdom  and  authority  had  sustained  our 
Government,  tottering  between  the  pressure  of  domestic  factions, 
and  foreign  belligerents,  from  the  tender  weakness  of  infancy,  to 
a  state  of  regular  and  independent  action. 

On  the  26th  November,  1798,  in  writing  to  John  Taylor,  Mr. 
Jefferson  says,  (p.  404.)  "  It  is'  a  singular  phenomenon,  thnt 
while  our  State  governments  are  the  very  best  in  the  world, 
without  exception  or  comparison,  our  general  government  has  in 


110 

the  rapid  course  of  nine  or  ten  years,  become  more  arbitrary,  and 
swallowed  more  of  the  public  liberty,  than  even  that  of  England." 
Of  these  nine  or  ten  years,  thus  devoted  to  the  extension  of 
arbitrary  power,  and  to  the  destruction  of  liberty,  Gen.  Washing 
ton's  presidency  occupied  eight.  In  accordance  with  this  egregi 
ous  slander,  is  his  aspersion  in  a  letter  f!b  Robert  R.  Livingston, 
offering  him,  by  a  ludicrous  precipitation,  the  post  of  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  before  he  himself  had  been  elected  President,  (p.  443.) 
11  Come  forward  then,  my  cjear  Sir,  and  give  us  the  aid  of  yow 
talents,  and  the  weight  of  your  character,  towards  the  new  estab 
lishment  of  republicanism  ;  for  hitherto  we  have  seen  only  its 
travestie." 

Throughout  all  these  bitter  revilings  and  extravagant  misrepre 
sentations  of  this  illustrious  patriot,  and  the  other  able  statesmen 
who  had  preceded  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  direction  of  the  public 
councils,  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  he  never  makes  the  smallest 
allowance  for  the  novel,  difficult,  and  complicated  circumstances 
by  which  they  were  surrounded  ;  many  of  the  embarrassments 
proceeding  from  which,  had  been  created  or  increased  by  his  own 
instigations. 

President  Washington  did  not  find  a  Government  in  regular 
and  healthful  operation — the  route  of  its  march  opened  and 
levelled — the  play  of  its  functions  easy  from  custom,  and  deter 
mined  by  example.  He  had  not  to  maintain  public  credit,  but  to 
originate  it — he  had  not  to  preserve  foreign  relations,  so  much  as 
to  establish  them — he  had  less  to  cherish  than  to  create  our  com 
merce — and  instead  of  keeping  the  bordering  savages  at  peace,  he 
had  to  repel  their  frequent  and  murderous  inroads.  The  first 
operation  was  the  more  difficult,  from  the  heavy  depreciated  debt 
for  which  the  nation  was  bound,  both  to  foreign  and  domestic 
creditors.  The  second,  from  the  furious  and  uncompromising 
war  then  raging  between  France  and  England — placing  us, 
between  the  anger  of  recent  hostility  on  one  side,  and  the 
arrogance  of  recent  assistance  on  the  other — one  or  both  of  which 
relations,  contributed  directly  to  endanger  our  commerce,  and  to 
excite  the  Western  Indians  to  war. 

The  peculiar  difficulty  which  attended  Gen.  Washington's 
civil  career,  of  having  not  only,  like  his  successors,  to  obey  the 
Constitution  in  his  measures,  but  practically  to  interpret  it,  is 
illustrated  by  two  facts,  recorded  by  Marshall.  Prom  this  author 
we  learn,  that  President  Washington,  after  consulting  his  Cabinet 
at  the  head  of  which  was  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  determined  to 
request  the  advice  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  to  the 
proper  exposition  to  be  given  to  the  treaties  then  existing  between 
France  and  the  United  States :  and  that  the  Judges — having 


Ill 

after  much  deliberation,  intimated  that  they  considered  themselves 
inhibited  by  the  Constitution  from  counselling  or  deciding  in  their 
official  character  on  political  questions,  or  on  any  questions  not 
brought  before  them  in  the  recognized  forms,  and  regular  progress 
of  legal  controversy — the  President  acquiesced  in  this  opinion  and 
acted  without  their  advice.*  Afterwards,  while  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
still  his  prime  minister,  when  the  yellow  fever  was  desolating 
Philadelphia,  Washington  consulted  his  Cabinet  upon  the  pro 
priety  of  appointing  by  proclamation,  some  other  place  for  the 
meeting  of  Congress — but  finding  it  was  considered  that  such  a 
step,  however  desirable  its  object,  would  lead  him  beyond  the 
limits  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  to  the  executive  power,  he 
promptly  receded  from  it.t 

Thus  we  see  that  though  placed  in  a  situation  unprecedented 
and  perplexing,  Washington's  errors  of  opinion,  never  suffered  to 
degenerate  into  faults  of  practice,  were  sources  of  benefit  to  his 
country  by  becoming  monuments  of  instruction  to  his  successors. 

For  a  citizen,  who  like  Washington,  had  inscribed  his  patriot 
ism  on  the  annals  of  his  country  in  characters  enduring  as  the 
race  of  man,  to  have  every  supposed  error  of  his  policy,  or  inad 
vertence  of  his  judgment  while  operating  in  a  region  of  govern 
ment  thus  new  and  unexplored,  attributed,  not  to  want  of  expe 
rience,  or  fallibility  of  reason,  but  to  want  of  principle  or  obliquity 
of  purpose,  is  surely  the  height  of  injustice.  Yet  from  the  time 
Mr.  Jefferson  retired  from  the  cabinet,  until  Gen.  Washington 
laid  down  his  office,  and  indeed,  until  he  resigned  his  breath,  we 
find  this  system  of  censure  pursued  towards  him  by  his  pro 
fessed  friend  ;  and  his  measures  after  being  distorted  in  their 
character,  sneered  at  as  to  their  motives,  and  misrepresented  in 
their  consequences ;  ascribed  altogether  to  flagitious  designs, 
of  which  he  is  described  either  as  the  stupid  instrument,  or  the 
guilty  projector.  Was  not  then  Gen.  Lee  j  ustified,  let  me  again 
ask,  in  apprising  Gen.  Washington  of  this  secret  defamation, 
of  this  ungenerous  detraction,  this  ungrateful  slander  and  hy 
pocritical  friendship — of  which  his  character,  his  fame,  and 
through  these,  the  interest  and  reputation  of  his  country  were  the 
victims  ?  Was  he  not  required  to  do  it,  by  the  political  sympathy 
and  personal  friendship  he  felt  for  Gen.  Washington  ?  Moreover, 
was  he  not  provoked  to  it,  by  the  unjust  attacks  which  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  made  on  a  great  public  measure  which,  sanctioned  by 
Washington,  Gen.  Lee  had  himself  conducted,  to  the  satisfaction 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  pp.  433,  to  441.  t  Marshall,  Vol.  5,  p,  467, 


112 

of  the  government,  the  advantage  of  the  nation,  and  the  honour 
of  humanity  ? 

To  the  remaining  ribaldry  against  Gen.  Lee  in  the  letter  to 
Gen.  Washington  of  June  the  19th,  1796,  it  may  bethought 
unnecessary  to  revert — seeing  that  iuis  not  above  the  lowest 
Billingsgate,  in  language,  is  totally  destitute  of  foundation  in  fact, 
and  as  far  as  it  consists  of  assertion,  possesses  but  the  doubtful 
credit  of  its  author,  which  now 

"  Like  a  wounded  snake,  drags  its  slow  length  along." 

But  the  name  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  before  the  appearance  of  his 
Writings,  stood  like  a  lofty  pillar,  and  threw  its  shadow  far  over 
our  land.  Until  his  assertions  and  opinions  were  collected  toge 
ther,  and  could  be  examined  comparatively  by  the  public  eye, 
there  was  no  hope  of  resisting  his  statements,  or  of  appealing  from 
his  censure.  This  domineering  influence  however  ill-founded, 
cannot  be  dissipated  in  a  moment,  even  by  the  all-pervading  light 
of  truth ;  and  although  it  be  perfectly  clear  that  his  book  will 
eventually  overlay  his  reputation,  the  popular  mind  will  yet  for  a 
season  incline  with  reverence  to  his  authority,  and  repeat  the 
echoes  of  his  slander,  as  the  rocks  that  overhang  the  sea,  are  said 
to  retain  in  their  caverns,  the  sound  of  the  tempest  after  it  has 
passed. 

I  shall  therefore  proceed  to  notice  these  imputations;  and  though 
very  briefly,  at  much  more  length  than  they  deserve. 

The  first  is  that  Gen.  Lee  had  "  sinned  against  Gen.  Wash 
ington."  No  fact  is  alleged  or  even  alluded  to,  in  support  of  this. 
In  contradiction  of  it  are  these  well  known  facts  at  least ;  that 
subsequently  to  the  date  of  this  assertion,  Gen.  Washington, 
when  empowered  to  select  general  officers  for  the  army  he  con 
sented  to  command,  when  all  the  military  fame  he  had  acquired 
in  the  revolution  was  to  be  hazarded  in  a  new  contest,  and  as 
was  supposed  with  the  conqueror  of  Italy,  placed  Gen.  Lee  higher 
in  the  line  of  the  army,  than*  any  of  the  revolutionary  lieute 
nant-colonels,  although  he  was  the  youngest  of  those  whom  he 
designated  :  and  that  when  becoming  sensible  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
pernicious  schemes  and  dangerous  popularity,  he  determined  to 
exercise  his  influence  in  opposition  to  them,  he  persuaded  Gen. 
Lee,  the  man  whom  he  knew  Mr.  Jefferson  hated  and  slandered, 
to  become  again  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and  exerted  himself 
in  the  last  days  of  his  life  to  promote  his  election.*  To  these  it 

*  Marshall  alludes  to  this  circumstance,  Vol.  .5.  p.  760.,  but  as  Gen.  Wash 
ington  made  the  same  demonstration  of  attachment  and  respect  for  himself, 
mentions  no  names. 


113 

may  be  added,  that  when  that  illustrious  life  was  closed,  Gen. 
Lee  was  selected  in  conformity  with  a  resolution  of  Congress, 
and  with  the  concuVrence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  not  only  as 
the  most  eloquent  but  the  most  intimate  of  Gen.  Washington's 
friends,  to  pronounce,  in  a  funeral  oration,  his  country's  honour, 
and  his  country's  grief,  for  '  the  man,  first  in  war,  first  in  peace, 
and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-citizens.'* 

The  second  imputation  is,  that  Gen.  Lee  had  made  attempts 
at  a  confidential  intercourse  with  Mr.  Jefferson — which  by  the 
latter  was  declined.  Admitting  this  to  be  true,  it  only  shows  the 
consciousness  of  sinister  and  shameful  designs  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Jefferson.  For  as  Gen.  Lee  was  the  intimate  personal  friend  of 
Washington,  Hamilton,  Marshall,  Madison,  Patrick  Henry,  Ru- 
fus  King,  and  of  almost  every  eminent  man  in  the  United  States  ; 
had  been  distinguished  both  in  military  arid  civil  life ;  and  to  say 
the  least  in  his  favour,  was  remarked  for  fine  address,  and  en 
gaging  conversation,  there  could  not  possibly  be  any  honest 
reason  for  declining  his  advances. 

The  third  denounces  him  as  a  tergiversator ;  which  is  so  re 
mote  from  the  truth,  so  repugnant  to  the  uniform  consistency 
with  which  he  supported  the  policy  of  Washington  and  opposed 
the  schemes  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  that  it  may  be  passed  by  as  a  false 
hood  self-evident,  susceptible  neither  of  belief  nor  refutation. 

The  fourth  and  last  is,  that  ha  was  not  a  man  of  truth,  and  was 
therefore  unworthy  of  the  public  stations  he  had  held. 

In  reply  to  the  first  part  of  this  slander,  I  shall  merely  observe, 
that  he  maintained  during  life,  the  reputation  of  a  man  of  truth, 
in  spite  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  clandestine  imputation  to  the  contrary, 
and  left  among  his  writings  nothing  to  convict  him  after  death 
of  deceit  or  falsehood  ;  and  that  he  manifested  in  his  language  on 
all  occasions,  peculiar  delicacy  for  the  feelings  and  reputation  of 
others,  as  all  men  of  all  parties  who  knew  him,  will  testify.  In 
the  instance  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  contradicts  him,  it  has  been, 
1  think  you  will  allow  me  to  say,  demonstrated  that  he  strictly 
adhered  to  the  truth,  while  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  abandoned  most 
sadly,  friendship,  honour,  gratitude,  and  veracity.  And  in  regard 
to  the  second  part,  that  Gen.  Lee  was  unworthy  of  the  offices  he 
had  held,  I  venture  to  affirm,  and  shall  undertake  to  prove,  that 
besides  being  a  disinterested  servant  of  the  public,  he  was  in  pro 
portion  to  his  opportunities,  a  more  efficient,  a  more  devoted,  and 
a  more  useful  one  than  Mr.  Jefferson. 

Their  public  lives  may  each  be  divided  into  two  periods  ;  the 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  pp.  770—71. 
15 


114 

first  anterior  to  the  conclusion  of  the  Revolution,  and  the  se 
cond  subsequent  to  it ;  and  they  may  be  respectively  regarded 
under  two  aspects — one  composed  of  the  services  they  rendered, 
the  other  of  the  faults  they  committed.  This  mode  of  estimation 
will  be  fair,  simple,  and  perspicuous — and  will  leave  no  room,  it  is 
hoped,  either  for  the  indulgence  of  partiality,  or  for  what  would  be 
worse,  the  gratification  of  resentment. 

P.  S.  After  I  had  finished  this  letter,  the  Paris  newspapers  of 
the  20th  and  21st  of  Sept.  were  put  into  my  hands.  From  them 
it  appears  that  Gen.  Sebastiani,  in  a  debate  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  on  the  19th,  mentioned  as  a  fact,  that  Gen.  Washing 
ton  died  unpopular  in  the  United  States.  In  a  continuation  of 
the  same  debate  the  next  day,  Gen.  La  Fayette  is  reported  to 
have  replied,  that  as  to  Washington,  <  he  died  in  the  enjoyment 
of  all  his  popularity.'  This  is  certainly  a  mistake  on  the  part  of 
Gen.  La  Fayette,  as  will  occur  to  you  not  only  from  the  perusal 
of  this  letter,  but  from  what  is  said  on  the  same  subject  in  the 
sixth  of  this  series  ;  especially  from  the  facts  taken  from  Marshall, 
that  Gen.  Washington  had  to  defend  himself  against  a  charge  of 
peculation,  and  that  his  impeachment  was  publicly  suggested  by 
the  partisans  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  It  may  upon  the  whole  be  said, 
therefore,  that  while  it  was  impossible  to  eradicate  from  the  hearts 
of  the  people,  that  affection  which  Washington's  virtues  and  ser 
vices  inspired,  his  popularity,  the  desire  of  the  people  to  see  him 
at  the  head  of  affairs,  which  was  naturally  the  fruit  of  their  affec 
tion  and  confidence,  had  been  blighted  by  the  arts  and  calumnies 
of  Mr.  Jefferson. 


LETTER  IX. 

WHEN  the  battle  of  Lexington  was  fought  and  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  may  be  said  to  have  commenced,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
thirty-two  years  of  age  ;  and  following  his  autobiography,  which 
is  certainly  not  abstemious  in  regard  to  self-praise,  it  appears  that 
after  having  been  elected  to  the  House  of  Burgesses,  being  a 
member  of  several  patriotic  associations,  and  assisting  in  the 
adoption  of  various  measures  of  incipient  resistance  to  the  govern 
ment  of  the  mother  country,  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the 
Congress  of  1775,  as  a  substitute  for  Peyton  Randolph,  who  was 
constrained  by  other  public  duties  to  retire  from  that  body. 
Having  drawn  up  the  answer  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses 


115 

to  Lord  North's  conciliatory  propositions,  he  repaired  te  Philadel 
phia,  and  took  his  seat  in  Congress  in  the  month  of  June ;  when 
being  appointed  a  member  of  the  committee  charged  with  pre 
paring  a  report  on  the  same  propositions,  the  answer  which  he 
had  already  produced  in  Virginia,  being  shaped  for  the  occasion, 
was  approved  by  his  colleagues  and  accepted  by  Congress.  As 
member  of  another  committee,  he  prepared  a  report  on  the  causes 
which  had  determined  the  Colonies  to  take  up  arms,  which  being 
rejected  by  Congress,  was  substituted  by  one  from  the  peri  of  Mr. 
Dickinson.  His  next  performance  was  the  declaration  of  inde 
pendence,  which,  after  considerable  alterations  suggested  by  Dr. 
Franklin  and  Mr.  Adams,  was  adopted,  and  remains  the  princi 
pal  monument  of  his  revolutionary  fame. 

Retiring  from  Congress  in  the  Autumn  of  1778,  probably  with 
a  view  of  being  appointed  Governor  of  Virginia,  he  got  into  the 
Legislature  of  that  State.     He  there  prepared  the  bills  for  estab 
lishing  courts  of  justice,  for  cutting  off  entails,  and  for  preventing 
the  further  importation  of  slaves — the  two  last  certainly  wise  and 
important  in  principle.     That  for  cutting  off  entails,  however, 
was  of  obvious  necessity  from  the  form  of  our  new  institutions, 
and  the  prevailing  temper  of  the  people,  and  had  only  to  be  pro 
posed  by  any  member,  in  order  to  be  adopted  by  a  large  majorit3T, 
as  it  was  in  others  of  the  States.     The  law  against  the.  importa 
tion  of  slaves  though  recommended  by  every  consideration  of 
humanity,  justice,  and  sound  policy,  was  a  dead  letter  during  a 
war  in  which  our  ports  and  harbours  were  all  blockaded,  and  in 
which  the  question  at  issue  was  our  national  existence — our  ca 
pacity,  in  short,  to  make  laws.     He  was  also  the  author  of  the 
Law  of  Descents,  by  which  the  Gothic  and  aristocratical  right  of 
primogeniture  was  abolished — a  corollary  from  his  previous  law 
on  the  subject  of  entails.     In  the  early  efforts  to  secure  a  perfect 
freedom  of  religious  opinion  in  Virginia,  by  abolishing  the  colo 
nial  establishment,  he  took  a  leading  and  zealous  part.     He  sug 
gested  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  from  Williamsburg, 
to  Richmond,  as  a  position  less  exposed  to  the  enemy  and  more 
within  the  means  of  defence.     He  proposed  to  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia  a  revision  of  the  laws  of  that  State,  and  being  appointed 
one  of  five  commissioners  for  the  purpose,  assigns  to  himself  the 
principal  part  of  the  task  and  of  the  credit.    He  was  next  elected 
Governor,  an  office  from  which  he  retired  after  holding  it  about 
two  years.     Here  seems  to  terminate  the  list  of  his  revolutionary 
labours  and  honours,  and  of  the  stations  in  which  these  were  en 
joyed,  and  those  performed. 


116 

As  he  neither  suggested  nor  maintained  in  debate  any  of  the 
measures  which  were  adopted  by  Congress— participated  in  none 
of  the  anxious  and  solemn  discussions  of  that  body  ;  supported 
neither  the  motion  for  declaring  the  Colonies  independent,  nor  the 
particular  form  of  declaration  that  was  adopted  ;  and  was  silent  in 
the  deliberations  on  the  articles  of  confederation,  in  the  character 
of  which  his  State  was  vitally  interested,  his  chief  title  to  remem 
brance  as  a  delegate,  rests  on  the  authorship  of  the  declaration  of 
independence. 

Whatever  degree  of  credit  may  be  claimed  for  this  production, 
this  credit  is  evidently  subject,  as  far  as  Mr.  Jefferson  is  concerned, 
to  one  abatement  at  least — that  of  its  having  undergone  no  little 
amendment  and  a  most  abundant  pruning  in  committee,  by  both 
which  operations  it  was  greatly  improved.  As  it  stands,  it  is  no 
doubt  an  excellent  state  paper,  conceived  with  judgment  and  ex 
pressed  with  solemnity.  But  it  exhibits  none  of  the  higher 
powers  of  composition,  and  though  suited  to  the  great  occasion, 
was  not  equal  to  it ;  displaying  neither  extraordinary  vigour  of 
thought,  elevation  of  sentiment,  nor  elegance  of  language.  It 
may  be  said  to  consist  of  four  parts — the  exordium,  the  argument, 
tbe  narration,  and  the  conclusion.  Without  questioning  the  pro 
priety  of  this  arrangement,  it  may  be  observed  of  the  first  part, 
that  it  is  in  point  of  conception  natural  and  appropriate.  The 
second  is  derived  altogether  from  Locke's  Essay  on  Civil  Govern 
ment,  which  was  then  the  text  book  of  our  statesmen.  No 
great  intellectual  exertion  was  required  to  refer  to  or  employ  the 
principles  and  reasoning  of  which  this  division  of  the  paper  con 
sists.  The  third  and  longest  part  is  neither  more  nor  less  than 
a  list  of  grievances,  with  which  every  public  man  in  the  country 
was  but  too  familiar.  These,  it  must  be  confessed,  are  not  skil 
fully  arranged — they  are  strung  together  like  the  items  of  an  ac 
count,  and  have  little  of  that  consecutive  force  and  energetic  de 
pendence,  which  a  great  composer  would  have  given  them.  The 
conclusion  is  the  best  part,  but  owes  the  warmth  and  dignity  into 
which  it  rises,  entirely  to  the  amendments  of  the  committee.  Mr. 
Jefferson  by  his  own  shewing  had  degraded  it  into  a  close  ana 
logy  with  the  warranty  clause  of  a  legal  conveyance ;  as  in  the 
following  passage — "  these  States  reject  and  renounce  all  alle 
giance  and  subjection  to  the  kings  of  Great  Britain,  and  all 
others  who  may  hereafter  claim  by,  through,  or  under  them" 

The  style,  deficient  in  propriety,  is  chargeable  with  a  plethora 
of  words.  The  opening  paragraph  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
praise,  and  is  a  favourable  specimen  of  the  composition.  But  it 


117 

is  liable  to  obvious  objections.  It  is  as  follows  : — "  When,  in  the 
course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to 
dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them  with 
another,  and  to  assume  among  the  powers  of  the  earth  the  sepa 
rate  and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's 
God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  to  the  opinions  of  mankind  re 
quires  that  they  should  declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to 
the  separation."  The  words  "  in  the  course  of  human  events," 
after  "  when,"  are  tautological ;  and  the  epithet  human  exces 
sively  so.  What  is  more,  they  imply  that  we  became  indepen 
dent  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things,  and  not  by  a  magnanimous 
and  perilous  resolution  to  revolt  from  extraordinary  oppression. 
"  The  political  bands  which  have  connected  them,"  is  a  verbose 
and  awkward  periphrasis  of  connexion  ;  embodies,  unnecessarily, 
a  metaphorical  vulgarism  ;  and  is  not  suited  to  the  verb,  "  dis 
solve"  We  break  "  bands" — we  dissolve  connexions.  The 
word  "  separate"  in  the  succeeding  line  is  clearly  redundant,  its 
meaning  being  comprehended  in  the  dissolution  of  connexion. 
"  Equal"  is  an  expletive  ;  for  the  postulate,  that  all  sovereigns  are 
equal  had  been  too  often  granted  to  acquire  strength  by  repetition. 
The  phrase,  "  Nature's  God,"  conveys  a  vagueness  of  religious  sen 
timent,  a  heathenish  puerility,  out  of  all  keeping  with  the  awful 
crisis  for  which  the  document  was  prepared.  "  Decent  respect"  im 
plies  the  possibility  of  indecent  respect ;  and  decent  is  moreover 
a  drawback  on  the  substantive  to  which  it  is  prefixed,  besides 
creating  a  useless  occasion  for  the  article  "  a."  The  expression 
"  A  respect  to  the  opinions"  is  not  sanctioned  by  usage.  When 
followed  by  to,  respect  means  reference,  relation.  When  it  sig 
nifies  esteem,  or  reverence,  it  is  succeeded  by  for.  In  the  con 
cluding  member  of  the  sentence,  the  word  "  causes,"  is  used  in  a 
moral  sense,  as  synonimous  with  reasons ;  in  which  sense  it 
cannot  be  elegantly  connected  with  the  verb  "  impel."  This 
connexion  involves  a  metaphysical  error.  Passions  impel  the 
mind  ;  reasons  determine  it — as  in  the  following  line  of  Pope : — 

"  Now  calmed  by  reason,  now  by  rage  impelled." 

Besides  the  disagreement  between  a  sense  of  mental  impul 
sion,  and  the  state  of  tranquil  progression,  presupposed  by  the 
words  "when  in  the  course  of  human  events,"  this  language  is 
inconsistent  with  the  history  of  the  occasion — with  that  sensitive 
but  enduring  patriotism,  and  that  roused  but  deliberate  resentment, 
out  of  which  the  resolution  to  declare  independence  grew  ;  and 
which  are  implied  in  the  body  of  the  declaration  itself. 


118 

These  remarks  are  sufficient  to  shew  that  in  respect  to  the  exor 
dium,  in  which  the  great  masters  of  style  exert  their  utmost  art 
to  arrive  at  brief  simplicity  of  language,  a  loss  of  words  would  be 
a  gain  of  strength  and  beauty,  and  that  the  paragraph  in  ques 
tion,  which  has  been  so  much  lauded,  by  being  very  much  ab 
ridged,  would  be  very  much  improved.  *As  for  example — "When 
it  becomes  necessnry  for  one  people  to  dissolve  their  political  con 
nexion  with  another,  and  to  assume  among  the  powers  of  the 
earth,  the  station  to  which  by  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  God 
they  are  entitled,  respect  for  the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that 
they  should  declare  the  causes  of  their  separation."  Thus  in 
that  single  sentence,  consisting  of  seventy-one  words,  seventeen, 
or  about  one  fourth,  are  worse  than  useless.  In  the  same  propor 
tion,  and  to  equal  advantage,  the  entire  composition  might  be 
abridged. 

I  hazard  these  observations,  not  from  a  desire  to  detract  from 
the  real  merit  of  this  memorable  state  paper,  but  to  convince  you 
that  the  renown  with  which  it  has  encircled  the  name  of  its 
author,  is  altogether  owing  to  the  success  of  the  revolution  ;  to 
the  gallantry,  talent,  fortitude,  and  virtue  of  the  very  men  whom 
he  bitterly  and  incessantly  reviled  and  slandered.  Whoever  reads 
it,  must  be  prepared  to  admit  that  if  our  struggle  for  independence 
had  failed — if  we  had  experienced  the  fate  of  unhappy  Poland — 
had  been  resubjected  by  the  fleets  and  armies  of  England,  that 
if  Washington  had  been  less  wise,  magnanimous,  and  incorrup 
tible,  Hamilton  less  sagacious,  ardent,  and  intrepid,  Lee  less  skil 
ful,  undaunted,  and  enterprising,  this  composition,  which  is  now 
the  corner  stone  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  glory,  would  have  slept  amid 
the  kindred  lumber  of  some  pamphleteer's  shelf,  and  been  there 
forgotten.  Will  posterity  think  of  inquiring  for  the  author  of  the 
late  Polish  Manifesto — or  would  every  heart  in  the  United  States 
beat  with  gratitude  and  love  at  the  name  of  La  Fayette,  if  his  exer 
tions  in  defence  of  our  liberty  had  consisted  in  writing  the  decla 
ration  of  independence  ? 

As  a  legislator,  in  the  contracted  sphere  of  our  State  govern 
ment,  Mr.  Jefferson  is  entitled  to  substantial  credit.  The  principles 
on  which  he  proceeded  were  sound,  and  the  objects  he  pursued  just 
and  useful.  They  were  however  enforced  by  the  circumstances 
of  the  times,  and  by  suggestions  of  obvious  fitness  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  others  as  well  as  himself.  Similar  measures  were 
contemporaneously  adopted  in  other  States ;  and  if  time  were 
taken  to  unfold  completely  the  legislative  history  of  that  period, 
we  should  find  the  figure  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  which,  viewed  alone, 
and  through  his  own  "optic  glass"  seems  colossal,  diminished  to  a 
size  inferior  to  that  of  many  of  his  contemporaries. 


119 

His  bill  for  establishing  a  perfect  liberty  of  conscience,  could 
hardly  have  been  enunciated,  much  less  explained  and  supported, 
without  drawing  upon  Locke,  who  in  his  letters  on  toleration, 
had  exhausted  the  subject.  Of  the  merit  of  his  revision  of  the 
Laws  of  Virginia  I  am  not  capable  of  forming  an  opinion,  but 
I  well  remember  to  have  heard  the  most  accomplished  Lawyer* 
of  that  Slate  observe,  that  for  luminous  order  of  arrangement, 
precision  and  perspicuity  of  expression,  Mr.  Pendleton's  part  of 
the  work,  was  most  to  be  admired. 

As  a  lawgiver,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  far  inferior  to  a  man,  whom, 
in  popular  favour  and  public  honours,  he  greatly  outstripped. 
This  man  was  George  Mason.  There  is  more  wisdom,  more 
condensation  of  thought  and  energy  of  reason,  in  one  single 
clause  of  the  Virginia  bill  of  rights,  from  the  pen  of  that  truly 
great  man,  than  in  all  the  writings  of  Mr.  Jefferson  put  together. 

This  clause  is  as  follows — "  That  no  man  or  set  of  men  is  en 
titled  to  exclusive  or  separate  emoluments,  or  privileges  from  the 
community,  but  in  consideration  of  public  services ;  which  not 
being  descendible,  neither  ought  the  offices  of  magistrate;  legisla 
ture,  or  judge  to  be  hereditary."  Here  is  a  volume  of  truth  and 
wisdom,  a  lesson  for  the  study  of  nations,  embodied  in  a  single 
sentence,  and  expressed  in  the  plainest  language.  If  a  deluge  of 
despotism  were  to  overspread  the  world,  and  destroy  those  institu 
tions  under  which  freedom  is  yet  protected,  sweeping  into  oblivion 
every  vestige  of  their  remembrance  among  men,  could  this  single 
sentence  of  Mason  be  preserved,  it  would  be  sufficient  to  re-kindle 
the  flame  of  liberty,  and  to  revive  the  race  of  freemen.  Whereas, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  contains  not  a  sentiment,  prin 
ciple  or  argument,  not  a  solitary  idea  or  combination  of  thought, 
that  may  not  be  found  almost  totidem  verbis,  in  Locke's  political 
works,  or  in  various  state  papers  and  patriotic  effusions  of  the  Re 
volution,  and  that  had  not  been  repeatedly  urged  in  the  debates  on 
the  great  question  of  Independence  ;  which  its  author  neither  pro 
posed  nor  supported  in  Congress,  arid  failed  signally  to  maintain 
in  the  field. 

As  Governor  of  Virginia,  the  world  had  supposed  him  particu 
larly  delinquent  from  three  facts — one,  that  he  suffered  his  ca 
pital,  though  remote  from  the  sea,  and  inaccessible  to  fleets,  to 
fall  an  unresisting  prey  to  a  detachment  of  nine  hundred  men  ; 
another,  that  a  motion  to  impeach  him  for  this  pusillanimity 
was  laid  before  the  legislature  of  Virginia  by  a  member  of  ability 
and  reputation  ;  and  a  third,  that  he  retired  from  the  governor- 

*John  Wickham. 


120 

ship  (under  the  weight  of  this  charge)  in  a  premature  and  unpre 
cedented  manner.  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  is  quite  of  a  different 
opinion ;  considers  his  flight  from  Richmond  as  constituting  a 
great  era  in  our  republic,  as  a  sort  of  political  Hegira  ;  and  his 
escapade  to  Carter's  Mountain,  as  an.  ascent  into  the  seventh 
heaven*  of  patriotic  perfection,  establishing  in  his  favour  a  claim 
to  the  increased  infatuation,  and  more  ardent  idolatry  of  his 
worshippers. 

As  this  is  the  most  characteristic  point  in  his  career,  reveals  not 
only  the  nature  of  the  spell  which  he  cast  over  the  public  mind, 
but  his  own  confidence  in  its  endurance  and  tenacity — and  as 
moreover  it  embraces  his  second  and  distinct  attack  upon  Gen. 
Lee,  I  shall  neither  abuse  your  patience  nor  transgress  the  limits 
of  my  undertaking,  by  devoting  to  it  some  attention. 

The  subject  is  repeatedly  referred  to  in  his  "  Writings,"  but  the 
name  of  Gen.  Lee  is  connected  with  it  only  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Monroe  of  the  1st  of  January,  1815.  (V.  4.  p.  246.)  "  I  much 
regretted  your  acceptance  of  the  war  department — not  that  I 
know  a  person  who  I  think  would  better  conduct  it.  But  con 
duct  it  ever  so  wisely,  it  will  be  a  sacrifice  of  yourself.  Were  an 
angel  from  heaven  to  undertake  that  office,  all  our  miscarriages 
would  be  ascribed  to  him.*  Raw  troops,  no  troops,  insubordi 
nate  militia,  \vant  of  arms,  want  of  money,  want  of  provisions, 
all  will  be  charged  to  want  of  management  in  you  ; — I  speak 
from  experience.  When  I  was  Governor  of  Virginia — without  a 
regular  in  the  State,  and  scarcely  a  musket  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  militia,  invaded  by  two  armies,  Arnold's  from  the  seaboard 
and  Coi  nwallis's  from  the  southward,  when  we  were  driven  from 
Richmond  and  Charlottesville,  and  every  member  of  my  council 
fled  to  their  homes,  it  was  not  the  total  destitution  of  means  but 
the  mismanagement  of  them  which  in  the  querulous  voice  of  the 
public  caused  all  our  misfortunes.  It  ended  indeed  in  the  cap 
ture  of  the  whole  hostile  force,  but  not  till  means  were  brought 
us  by  Gen.  Washington's  army  arid  the  French  fleet  and  army. 
And  although  the  legislature,  who  were  personally  acquainted 
with  both  the  means  and  measures,  acquitted  me  with  justice 
and  thanks,  yet  Gen.  Lee  has  put  all  these  imputations  among 
the  romances  of  his  historical  novel,  for  the  amusement  of  credu 
lous  and  uninquisitive  readers." 

*  Yet  in  this  very  letter  to  Mr.  Monroe,  he  had  himself  just  heen  guilty  of 
this  injustice  towards  Gen.  Armstrong — of  which  from  experience  he  spoke 
so  feelingly — saying  in  relation  to  the  battle  of  Bladensburg  and  the  capture 
of  Washington,  "  I  never  doubted  that  the  plans  of  the  President  were  wise 
and  sufficient.  Their  failure  we  all  impute,  1st,  to  the  insubordinate  temper 
of  Armstrong,"  who  was  then  Secretary  of  War. 


Now  the  fact  is,  that  Gen.  Lee,  in  a  \vork  of  two  octavo  vo 
lumes,  touches  but  in  two  chapters  on  the  operations  in  Virginia 
during  Mr.  Jefferson's  governorship,  and  in  these,  very  briefly. 
The  censure  that  his  work  reflects  on  the  management  of  affairs 
in  that  State  applies,  as  well  as  I  can  recollect,  to  two  points  only, 
the  want  of  due  preparation  for  the  defence  of  the  capital,  in  the 
shape  of  a  regular  force,  and  the  mischievous  inutility  of  removing 
the  arms,  stores,  &c.  to  the  distance  of  a  bowshot  from  Rich 
mond,  instead  of  carrying  them  out  of  the  enemy's  reach,  or  em 
ploying  them  in  opposing  his  advance. 

The  first  of  these  reflections  regarded  rather  the  legislature 
than  the  governor,  and  the  second  was  as  faint  and  indulgent  a 
disapprobation  as  any  allusion  to  the  subject  would  justify.  Gen. 
Lee  might  have  expatiated  on  Mr.  Jefferson's  flight,  or  have  re 
corded  the  motion  for  his  impeachment ;  but  because  neither  of 
these  odious  subjects  were  essential  to  his  work,  he  avoided  them. 
A  generous  mildness,  for  which,  Mr.  Jefferson,  considering  how 
differently  he  had  treated  Gen.  Lee,  ought  really  to  have  felt 
grateful. 

Though  he  never  reclaimed  against  "  Lee's  Memoirs"  pub 
licly,  I  had  heard  he  was  dissatisfied,  and  therefore  took  occasion, 
in  preparing  a  second  edition,  to  call  his  attention  to  the  passage 
relating  to  Arnold's  invasion  of  Virginia,  offering  to  place  in  a 
note  or  appendix  any  remarks  he  might  think  proper  to  make — 
reserving  at  the  same  time  expressly,  the  right  of  accompanying 
their  insertion  with  such  observations  as  they  might  appear  to 
authorise.  He  sent  me  in  reply  a  journal  of  Arnold's  reported 
progress  and  of  his  own  proceedings,  and  while  he  acknowledged 
that  he  possessed  no  copy  of  Gen.  Lee's  work,  undertook  to  cor 
rect  his  account  of  another  military  operation  in  the  State — which 
correction  turned  out  to  be  inapplicable,  as  Gen.  Lee's  narration 
corresponded  precisely  with  Mr.  Jefferson's.  Perceiving  that  this 
contribution  tended  not  in  the  least  to  invalidate  Gen.  Lee's  re 
flections  on  Arnold's  invasion,  I  foui|^  myself  relieved  on  pub 
lishing  it,  from  the  necessity  of  annexing  any  material  remarks. 

The  historical  work  of  Gen.  Lee,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  here 
stigmatises  as  romantic,  is  a  personal  recital  of  events  of  the  re 
volutionary  war  in  which  he  was  concerned,  interspersed  with 
reflections  on  the  conduct  of  the  adverse  commanders,  and  with 
allusions  to  such  other  operations,  as  were  necessary  to  impart 
consistency  and  clearness  to  his  narration.  In  composing  it  he 
resorted  to  his  own  memory,  assisted  by  notes  that  he  took  at  the 
time  the  chief  events  he  relates  were  passing,  and  by  the  letters 
and  orders  of  his  commanding  officers.  Gens.  Washington, 

Hi 


122 

Greene,  and  La  Fayette.  But  he  did  not  rely  altogether  even  on 
these  resources.  He  called  to  his  aid  the  recollection  of  his  sur 
viving  comrades ;  by  whose  testimony.,  his  statements  of  fact  are 
supported.  Gen.  Pickens,  Gen.  Stevens,  Col.  Howard,  Col.  Car- 
rington,  Col.  Davie,  Major  Pendleton^and  Major  Eggleston, 
were  among  his  principal  contributors.  The  scenes  of  the  ope 
rations  he  describes,  lay  chiefly  in  the  States  of  New- York,  New- 
Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  to  the  north ;  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia  to  the  south.  In  nearly  all  these  operations  he  was 
himself  an  actor,  while  to  all  except  those  he  slightly  alludes  to  in 
Virginia,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  a  total  stranger.  Yet  caricaturing 
the  public  impression  that  various  incidents  in  which  Gen.  Lee 
was  engaged,  his  stratagems,  his  enterprises,  his  sieges,  and 
marches  are  fraught  with  a  romantic  interest,  and  indulging  his 
long-borne  malice,  this  umvarlike  politician, 

"  Who  never  set  a  squadron  in  the  field," 

denounces  with  oracular  decision  the  entire  work  to  be  a  mere 
"  historical  novel."  A  man  who  under  such  circumstances,  could 
hazard  this  assertion,  must  have  valued  his  own  credit  very 
little,  or  the  judgment  of  his  friend  less. 

Among  the  deficiencies  for  which  he  alleges  that  he  was  made 
blameable,  Mr.  Jefferson  includes  a  want  of  arms  ;  when  it  is 
apparent  from  his  own  statement  (V.  1.  pp.  201,  2.  and  Yol.  4. 
pp.  39, 40.)  that  he  had  cannon,  muskets,  powder,  and  "  military 
stores"  generally,  in  abundance.  For  he  admits  that  his  agents 
were  at  least  four  days  and  nights  employed  in  removing,  or  as 
he  has  it,  wagoning^  "  the  military  stores"  from  Richmond,  in 
order  to  save  them  from  Arnold  ;  and  that  after  "  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  arms"  had  been  conveyed  across  James  River,  the 
enemy  destroyed  three  hundred  muskets  at  Richmond  besides  a 
variety  of  stores,  and  at  Westham  recovered  five  brass  field  pieces 
which  he  had  had  sunk  in  the  river,  and  threw  as  many  tons  of 
powder  into  the  canal.  "JJfiis  looks  more  like  a  superfluity  than 
a  "  destitution  of  means." 

He  represents  the  State  as  invaded  by  Arnold  from  the  "  sea 
board,"  and  Lord  Cornwallis  from  the  south  at  the  same  time  ; 
whereas  Arnold  entered  Richmond  on  the  6th  of  January,  and 
Cornwallis  did  not  penetrate  the  southern  frontier  of  the  State  un 
til  about  the  middle  of  May  following.  But  the  most  romantic 
part  of  his  "  historical  novel"  is  the  assertion  that  the  misma 
nagement  imputed  to  him  "  ended  indeed  in  the  capture  of  the 
whole  hostile  force,  but  not  till  means  were  brought  us  by  Gen. 
Washington's  army,  and  the  French  fleet  and  army."  Now 


123 

when  this  combination  of  events  happened,  Mr.  Jefferson  had,  for 
more  than  three  months,  ceased  to  be  Governor,  and  so  far  from 
being  among  the  us  who  met  the  assistance  of  those  martial  men, 
Washington,  Rochambeau,  rrad  De  Grasse,  was  residing  on  his 
estate  in  Bedford,  two  hundred  miles  from  the  theatre  of  war, 
lying  under  the  motion  for  his  impeachment,  and  nibbling  at  a 
negociation  with  its  mover  in  order  to  elude  a  prosecution. 

As  to  the  legislature  "  acquitting  him  with  justice  and 
thanks,"  it  is  sufficient  to  observe  at  present,  that  inasmuch  as  he 
was  never  tried,  he  could  not  have  been  acquitted  ;  so  that  the 
award  of  justice  which  he  modestly  appropriates  in  his  own  fa 
vour,  was  never  pronounced.  A  resolution  of  thanks  indeed 
passed  the  General  Assembly  in  the  winter  subsequent  to 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  which,  besides  being  under  circum 
stances  that  gave  it  a  very  equivocal  character,  was  in  terms 
which  carefully  excluded  any  reference  to  his  military  conduct. 

So  much  for  his  statement  to  Mr.  Monroe.  A  more  elaborate 
one  is  found  at  page  39  of  his  4th  volume,  in  the  shape  of  an 
extract  from  his  journal,  from  the  31st  December,  1780,  to  the 
llth  of  January,  1781,  both  inclusive,  a  summary  of  certain 
succeeding  events,  and  a  defence  of  his  own  proceedings.  It 
appears  to  have  been  prepared  in  the  year  1805,  and  to  he  in 
answer  to  the  strictures  of  a  Mr.  Turner,  an  intelligent  citizen  of 
Virginia.  Its  main  drift  is  to  prove  that  from  the  rapidity  with 
which  Arnold's  detachment  was  conveyed  by  the  British  fleet 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Chesapeake  to  Westover,  twenty-five  miles 
from  Richmond,  (where  they  disembarked  and  indicated  that 
Richmond  and  not  Petersburg  was  their  object)  it  was  imprac 
ticable  to  oppose  their  advance,  cut  off  their  retreat,  or  save  the 
stores  and  records. 

Upon  a  point  of  conduct  like  this,  opinions  may  reasonably 
differ  ;  but  although  there  is  no  standard  of  duty,  there  are  two 
principles  by  which  a  firm  and  patriotic  officer  will  govern  him 
self  on  such  occasions.  One  is,  not  to  despair  ;  and  the  other,  is 
to  leave  nothing  unattempted  in  defence  of  the  Commonwealth. 
By  these  principles  Jackson  was  animated,  when  under  circum 
stances  of  far  greater  gloom  and  peril,  he  attacked  a  force  much 
superior  to  his  own,  the  moment  it  landed  below  New  Orleans. 

From  Marshall*  we  learn  that  Arnold's  party  (which  was 
composed  chiefly  of  American  deserterst)  consisted  of  nine  hun- 

*  Vol.  4.  p.  389. 

t  Lee's  memoirs — the  chapter  in  which  Champe's  attempt  to  take  Arnold, 
ig  related.  It  is  referred  to  from  memory. 


124 

dred  men,  that  a  few  militia  were  detached  to  harrass  and  retard 
them,  and  that  in  the  mean  time,  exertions  were  made  to  remove 
the  public  stores,  records,  &c.  to  Westham.  From  Mr.  Jefferson's 
report  to  Gen.  Washington,  (Vol.  Ivp.  202.)  it  appears  there  were 
at  least  two  hundred  militia,  embodied  at  Richmond,  the  day  the 
enemy  entered  and  took  possession  of  it,  and  that  there  was  no 
want  of  arms  and  ammunition.  But  it  is  confessed  by  himself, 
that  never  venturing  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy,  he  gave  at  once 
into  the  exaggeration  which  estimated  them  at  sixteen  hundred 
men.  He  did  not  even  accompany  the  party  which  attempted 
to  oppose  them,  but  by  preparing  from  the  first,  for  flight,  infected 
with  fear,  the  community  which  he  should  have  inspired  with 
confidence.  Had  he  put  arms  in  the  hands  of  the  people  he  em 
ployed  in  "  wagoning"  muskets  from  one  place  of  exposure  to 
another,  united  them  with  the  two  hundred  embodied  militia, 
mounted  a  proper  proportion  of  the  party  on  the  wagon  horses, 
and  awakened  the  patriotism  and  spirit  of  his  men,  by  putting 
himself  at  their  head,  he  might  have  effectually  checked  the 
progress  of  Arnold,  on  the  strong  and  wood-covered  hills,  which 
embanking  a  succession  of  obstructing  creeks,  break  abruptly  on 
the  river  below  Richmond.  On  this  ground,  three  hundred  men, 
expert  in  the  use  of  fire-arms,  as  our  people  are,  with  a  resolute 
leader,  stationed  behind  trees,  favoured  by  commanding  positions, 
and  furnished  with  light  field  pieces,  were  sufficient  not  only  to 
impede,  but  to  defeat  Arnold,  who  had  but  thirty  horse,  and  had 
no  cannon.  The  American  force  would  have  increased  in  num 
ber  and  spirit  every  hour  ;  while  the  enemy,  their  men  mostly 
deserters,  and  their  leader  with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  would 
have  as  rapidly  declined  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
least  serious  opposition  upon  this,  his  first  parricidal  attempt, 
would  have  hurried  Arnold  back  to  his  ships. 

The  war  in  which  we  were  then  engaged,  furnished  examples 
that  should  not  have  been  lost  on  the  Governor  of  Virginia.  At 
Bunker's  Hill  a  thousand  ill-armed  militia,  in  an  uncovered  posi 
tion,  taken  up  by  mistake  ;  though  enfiladed  by  batteries  on  land, 
and  exposed  to  the  broadsides  of  several  frigates,  twice  repulsed 
the  attack  of  three  thousand  veteran  troops,  led  np  to  the  muzzles 
of  their  guns,  by  Gens.  Howe  and  Clinton  ;  and  gave  way  before 
a  third  attack,  not  till  their  ammunition  was  exhausted,  and  the 
ground  they  fought  on  was  heaped  with  slain.  Gen.  Lee,  whom 
Mr.  Jefferson  thought  so  undeserving  public  confidence,  had, 
when  a  Captain,  with  only  ten  men,  and  in  an  unfortified  house, 
repulsed  Tarleton  at  the  head  of  two  hundred  men,  although 
attacked  by  surprise  and  at  the  most  discouraging  hour,  according 


125 

to  Napoleon,  of  the  twenty-four.  This  same  Gen.  Lee,  you  will 
remember,  when  at  the  head  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  and 
seconded  by  Gens.  Morgan.  Mifflin,  and  Smith,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
of  opinion  might  not  only  have  been  successfully  opposed,  but 
actually  cut  off,  by  a  thousand  "  men  at  their  ploughs,"  "  in  a 
thousand  places  in  the  Alleghany ;"  although  like  Mr.  Jefferson, 
these  insurgents  were  "  unprepared  by  their  line  of  life  and  educa 
tion,"  for  war. 

Had  Mr.  Jefferson  failed  in  a  resolute  effort  to  defend  his  Capi 
tal,  his  misfortune,  though  lamented,  would  not  have  been  blamed. 
It  was  patriotic  spirit,  not  military  skill,  that  was  required  of  him. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  that  he  was  not  censurable,  for 
avoiding  that  degree  of  personal  danger  to  which  an  attempt  to 
defend  the  dignity  and  interest  of  the  commonwealth  he  had  un 
dertaken  to  govern,  would  have  exposed  him.  So  far  from 
acting  up  to  the  crisis,  he  never  faced  the  enemy  or  even  observed 
him  ;  and  until  he  ascertained  that  Arnold  had  retreated  to  his 
ships,  kept  himself  behind  the  current  of  a  broad  and  unfordable 
river,  flitting  from  place  to  place,  hiding  his  guns,  innocent  things ! 
lest  the  enemy  should  shoot  at  them  ;  and  sheltering  them, 
against  another  war,  it  would  seem,  from  the  pitiless  rains  !* 
During  all  this  time,  even  when  Gen.  Phillips  had  succeeded 
Tarleton,  he  affirms,  with  an  appearance  of  truth  too,  he  never 
assumed  a  guard,  was  often  "  in  four,  five,  or  six  miles"  of  the 
enemy,  with  nothing  but  James'  River  to  protect  him.  But 
counting  the  river  and  the  distance  for  nothing,  the  solitary 
incognito  which  the  Governor  adopted,  was  a  complete  protection 
from  danger,  and  shews  that  in  order  to  secure  that  inestimable 
advantage,  he  rendered  himself  as  useless  and  obscure  as  any 
private  citizen  who  kept  out  of  harm's  way. 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th,  when  it  was  certain  that  Arnold 
had  retreated  to  Westover,  Governor  Jefferson  ventured  across 
the  river,  and  returned  in  safety  to  Richmond.  At  this  time  he 
states  that  a  force  of  two  thousand  three  hundred  militia  were 
collected  under  Gens.  Steuben,  Nelson,  and  George  Rogers  Clarke, 
with  a  view  of  attacking  Arnold,  or  at  least  preventing  his  ravages. 
Yet  he  never  put  himself  at  the  head  of  these  parties,  nor  encour 
aged  them  by  his  presence,  nor  participated  in  their  efforts  to 
annoy  the  enemy. 

*  Extract  from  his  Journal,  (Vol.  4.  p.  40.)  "Finding  the  arms,  &c.  in  a 
heap  near  the  shore,  and  exposed  to  be  destroyed  by  cannon  from  the  north 
bank,  the  governor  had  them  removed  under  cover  of  a  point  of  land  near 

by." "  He  returned  to  Britton's,  to  see  further  to  the  arms  there, exposed 

on  the  ground  to  heavy  rains  which  had  fallen  the  night  before." 


126 

He  retained  his  station  as  Governor  of  Virginia,  until  the  ensu 
ing  June,  during  which  interval,  his  native  state,  the  destinies  of 
which  were  committed  to  his  care,  infested  by  two  hostile  invasions, 
and  overrun  by  the  horrors  of  conflagration  and  slaughter,  had  to 
exert  its  last  fibre  of  strength  in  self-defence.  Yet  he  alone,  Com 
mander-in-chief  of  the  forces,  stood  aloo?  from  peril,  never  ven 
tured  within  cannon-shot  of  the  foe,  and  looked  on  from  a 
distance,  while  a  generous  and  gallant  foreigner,*  offered  himself 
to  the  danger,  which  our  Governor  ingloriously  shunned. 

But  this,  if  we  believe  him,  was  not  the  most  reprehensible  part 
of  his  conduct.  By  the  Constitution  of  Virginia,  as  it  then  stood, 
you  know  that  the  Governor  was  elected  annually,  and  to  secure 
a  prudent  rotation  in  office,  the  same  individual  was  eligible,  three 
years  only  out  of  a  term  of  seven.  The  usage  under  this  regula 
tion  was  even  then,  (and  has  continued  ever  since,)  that  a 
man  being  elected  the  first  time,  was  re-elected  the  two  succeeding 
years  as  a  matter-of-course,  and  thus  completed  his  constitutional 
term.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  first  elected  in  June,  1779,  (Vol.  1.  p. 
40.)  and  says  he  declined  a  re-election,  in  other  words,  virtually 
resigned,  in  June,  1781 ;  at  a  time  when  Lord  Cornwallis  with  an 
army  of  seven  thousand  men  had  penetrated  into  the  heart  of  the 
State,  and  with  his  detachments,  under  Simcoe  and  Tarleton, 
was  spreading  destruction,  if  not  terror,  far  and  wide.  Now,  can 
it  be  supposed  that  Gen.  Lee,  or  any  other  citizen  of  Virginia — 
any  man,  or  even  any  woman,  who  had  drawn  her  first  breath 
on  that  soil,  would  have  shrunk  from  the  public  service,  at  such 
a  crisis  ? 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  represents  it  as  an  act  of  laudable  diffidence, 
of  patriotic  self-denial,  assigning  as  a  reason  for  it,  that  he  was 
unpractised  in  arms,  and  not  educated  for  command,  and  that 
therefore  conceiving  it  proper  that  the  military  and  civil  power 
should  be  lodged  in  the  same  hands,  he  proposed  to  his  friends  in 
the  Legislature,  that  Gen.  Nelson  who  commanded  a  division  of 
militia,  should  be  appointed  Governor. 

This  reasoning  and  this  expediency  did  not  occur  to  Governor 
Rutledge  of  South  Carolina,  nor  to  Governor  Trumbull  of  Connecti 
cut,  nor  to  any  of  the  governors  of  the  other  States.  The  same 
Arnold,  emboldened  by  his  successful  irruption  into  Virginia, 
invaded  Connecticut,  entered  its  chief  seaport,  massacred  its  citi- 

*  La  Fayette,  with  twelve  hundred  raw  recruits,  and  a  few  local  militia, 
by  a  series  of  bold  and  skilful  movements,  made  head  against  Arnold,  Phillips, 
and  Cornwallis  in  succession,  the  last  at  the  head  of  seven  thousand  men, 
during  incessant  operations,  for  six  months ;  and  until  he  was  joined  by  Gen. 
Wayne,  and  afterwards  by  Washington. 


127 

zens,  and  ravaged  their  property  ;  but  Governor  Trumbull  main 
tained  his  station  and  watched  with  tutelary  care  over  his  bleed 
ing  country. 

Governor  Rutledge,  when  his  State  was  not  only  overrun,  but 
subjugated  by  the  same  Cornwallis,  instead  of  declining  the  office 
of  Governor,  assumed  that  of  dictator.  He  was  neither  trained 
to  war,  nor  practised  in  command,  but  like  Mr.  Jefferson  had  been 
bred  a  lawyer,  and  educated  for  civil  employments.  But  he  ne 
ver  despaired  of  his  little  commonwealth ;  he  held  fast  the  en 
signs  of  her  sovereignty,  and  fanned  every  spark  of  her  patriot 
ism  that  was  left  unquenched  by  the  torrents  of  blood,  which,  in 
the  agony  of  unsuccessful  valour,  she  had  shed.  He  organized 
every  effort  at  resistance,  and  encouraged  every  attempt  at  deli 
verance,  that  the  public  spirit  of  his  countrymen  essayed.  When 
driven  from  Charleston  by  a  powerful  armament  and  a  regular 
siege,  and  in  consequence  of  a  series  of  defeats,  expelled  from  his 
state,  he  made  the  camp  nearest  the  foe  his  Capital ;  and  although 
he  might  have  devolved  his  responsibility  on  either  of  those  sons 
of  war,  Sumter,  Marion,  or  Pickens,  he  proudly  maintained  it, 
and  by  his  fortitude,  exertions,  and  influence,  imparted  to  their 
enterprises  an  efficiency  and  success,  which  (had  those  officers 
been  embarrassed  with  civil  duties)  would  not  have  attended 
them.* 

This  conduct  secured  to  Governor  Rutledge  just  and  lasting 
fame.  Can  it  be  affirmed  then  that  for  conduct  diametrically  op 
posed  to  this,  in  similar  circumstances,  and  in  the  immediate 
face  of  an  example  so  glorious,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  entitled  to 
praise,  or  was  not  justly  obnoxious  to  censure  ?  He  admits,  as 
you  perceive  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Monroe,  that  his  conduct  excited 
public  discontent,  conveying  at  the  same  time  the  impression  that 
this  was  the  effect  of  delusion  and  prejudice.  Yet  if  any  man 
can  for  a  moment  doubt  the  justice  of  this  popular  feeling,  let 
him  ask  himself  whether  as  Governor  of  Virginia  in  time  of  war 
and  invasion,  he  would  make  Mr.  Jefferson  his  model  ? 

Be  this  however  as  it  may,  Mr.  Jefferson  declined  a  re-election 
from  motives  of  disgraceful  unmanliness  or  self-convicting  despair, 
from  pusillanimity  past  or  present — an  alternative  to  which  he  is 
confined  by  his  own  vindication.  If  a  majority  of  the  people 
were  satisfied  with  his  conduct,  and  a  majority  of  the  legislature 
willing  to  re-elect  him,  his  retirement  from  the  honourable  station 
which  he  had  accepted  was  a  greater  crime  than  any  with  which 
he  was  charged.  Under  such  circumstances  to  desert  his  post 

*  Marshall,  V.  4.  pp.  136,  and  44,  and  45. 


128 

was  worse  than  flying  from  his  capital.  But  by  insisting  that 
the  discontent  with  his  conduct  was  confined  (V.  4.  p.  42)  to 
"  some  who  blamed  every  thing  done  contrary  to  their  own 
opinions,"  and  that  (p.  43)  "  he  therefore  himself  proposed  to  his 
friends  in  the  Legislature  that  Gen.  Nelson,  who  commanded  the 
militia  of  the  State,  should  be  appointed  Governor,"  he  does  sub 
stantially  maintain  the  two  propositions,  that  a  majority  of  the 
people  were  satisfied  with  his  conduct — and  that  a  majority 
of  the  Legislature  were  willing  to  re-elect  him.  It  follows 
therefore  that  he  was  upon  this  hypothesis  guilty  of  "  present  pu 
sillanimity." 

On  the  other  hand,  if  his  declining  a  re-election  was  not  an 
act  of  "  present  pusillanimity,"  it  must  have  proceeded  from  a 
natural  conviction  that  a  man  who  had  fled  from  the  public  ene 
my  as  he  had  done,  could  not  possibly  enjoy  the  public  confi 
dence,  and  that  the  Legislature  could  not  be  expected  in  a  season 
of  alarming  invasion,  to  elect  a  citizen  as  Governor  to-day  whom 
they  were  to  try  under  an  impeachment  to-morrow.  This,  as  he 
never  pretends  to  dispute  the  justice  of  the  general  sentiment  at 
the  time,  and  lays  claim  even  to  a  degree  of  favour  with  the  Le 
gislature  which  encouraged  him  to  propose  his  own  successor, 
amounts  to  a  confession,  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  "  past  pusil 
lanimity." 

This  view  of  his  position  is  rendered  plainer  by  his  efforts  to 
conceal  it.  In  a  letter  to  Gen.  Washington  of  the  28th  of  May, 
1781,  (V.  1.  p.  223)  to  the  skirts  of  whose  esteem  he  was  then 
clinging  for  support — and  who  being  on  a  distant  and  stormy 
sea  of  anxiety  and  contention,  couMjnot  be  expected  to  look  very 
closely  into  the  texture  of  his  statements — :he  announces  his  ap 
proaching  retirement,  in  a  way  designed  to  persuade  him  that  it 
was  a  voluntary  and  "  long  declared  resolution,"  a  "  relief  which 
the  Constitution  has  prepared  for  those  oppressed  with  the  laboura. 
of  my  office."  But  so  far  from  its  being  in  conformity  with  "  a 
long  declared  resolution,"  he  had  never  mentioned  it  either  in  his 
incessant  correspondence  with  Gen.  Washington,  in  that  with  the 
President  of  Congress,  or  in  his  letters  to  the  Virginia  delegation. 
On  the  contrary,  you  will  find  that  in  this  very  correspondence 
he  alludes  to  the  management  of  operations  extending  to  a  period 
far  beyond  the  time  proposed  for  his  resignation.  For  example, 
on  the  10th  of  May,  (V.  1.  p.  220,)  he  informs  the  Virginia  De 
legates  in  Congress  that  Gen.  Phillips,  then  a  prisoner  under  the 
convention  of  Saratoga,  had  written  a  letter  to  him  with  this  ad 
dress,  "  To  Thomas  Jefferson,  American  Governor  of  Virginia.'' 
He  adds,  "  very  shortly  after,  I  received  as  I  expected;  the  per- 


129 

mission  of  the  Board  of  War,  for  the  British  Flag  vessel,  then  in 
Hampton  Roads,  with  clothing  and  refreshments,  to  proceed 
to  Alexandria.  I  enclosed  it  and  adclressed  it  c  To  Wm.  Phil 
lips,  Esq.,  commanding  the  British  forces  in  the  commonwealth 
of  Virginia.'  Personally  knowing  Phillips  to  be  the  proudest  man 
of  the  proudest  nation  upon  earth,  I  well  know  he  will  not  open 
this  letter:  but  having  occasion  at  the  same  time  to  write  to 
Capt.  Gerlach,  the  flag  master,  I  informed  him  at  the  same  time 
that  the  convention  troops  in  this  State  should  perish  for  want  of 
necessaries,  before  any  should  be  carried  to  them  through  this 
State,  till  Gen.  Phillips  either  swallowed  this  pill  of  retaliation  or 
made  an  apology  for  his  rudeness.  And  in  this,  should  the  mat 
ter  come  ultimately  before  Congress,  we  hope  for  their  sup 
port"  Not  to  speak  of  the  inhumanity  of  making  the  prisoners 
perish  for  the  folly  of  Phillips,  the  state  of  mind  under  which  this 
letter  was  written,  the  persevering  determination,  and  "  ultimate" 
views  which  it  reveals,  exclude  the  possibility  of  believing  that 
even  as  late  as  the  10th  of  May,  Mr.  Jefferson  entertained  an  in 
tention  of  retiring  from  office  on  the  first  of  June.  This  conclu 
sion  is  confirmed  by  himself  in  a  memorandum  of  a  conversation, 
professed  to  have  been  held  with  Gen.  Washington  on  the  29th 
of  February,  1792,  in  which  he  says,  '•  I  told  him  that  the  cir 
cumstance  of  a  perilous  war,  which  brought  every  thing  into 
danger,  and  called  for  all  the  services  which  every  citizen  could 
render,  had  induced  me  to  undertake  the  administration  of  the 
government  of  Virginia."  (V.  4.  p.  456.) 

The  deceptive  spirit  of  his  letter  to  Gen.  Washington  is  further 
betrayed,  by  his  jargon  about  the  "  relief  which  the  constitution 
has  prepared  for  those  oppressed  by  the  labours  of  office."  The 
annual  occurrence  of  the  Governor's  election  instead  of  being  pre 
pared  by  the  constitution  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  those  who 
were  tired  of  office,  was  devised  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  get 
ting  rid  of  those  Governors  of  whom  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  the  public  was  tired.  A  Governor  who  was  tired  of  office 
could  resign  it  when  he  pleased — a  contingency  which  the  con 
stitution  foresaw,  and  had  provided  for,  by  declaring  that  in  the 
event  of  the  resignation  of  the  Governor,  the  oldest  member  of 
the  Council,  should,  in  the  character  of  Lieut.  Governor,  perform 
the  executive  duties. 

But  at  the  date  of  this  Letter  to  Gen.  Washington  the  pros 
pect  had  changed — the  members  of  the  Legislature  were  begin 
ning  to  assemble  and  to  collect  into  a  storm  the  clouds  of  disap 
probation  which  had  risen  up  against  Mr.  Jefferson  from  every 
quarter  of  the  horizon.  By  "  the  moody  frontier' of  the  Legisla- 

17 


130 

live  "  brow,"  he  was  at  a  glance  convinced  that  his  impeachment, 
not  his  election,  was  to  be  the  question  of  debate,  and  he  there 
fore  hastened  to  inform  Gen.  Washington,  that  he  was  about  to 
prove  his  patriotism  by  relinquishing  his  office  into  abler  hands, 
and  after  the  exhausting  labour  of  being  two  years  in  the  prime 
of  his  life,  Governor  of  Virginia,  in  which  time  and  capacity  he 
did  nothing  but  write  and  run,  he  was  about  to  seek  relief  and 
rest  in  a  private  station.  Lest  this  story  should  startle  Gen. 
Washington,  who  had  himself  been  unremittingly  employed  in  a 
far  more  arduous  station,  for  about  six  years,  he  says,  this  modest 
and  patriotic  design  had  been  "  long  declared ;"  an  assertion 
which  as  we  have  seen  it  is  impossible  to  believe — and  which, 
if  it  could  have  been  made  with  truth,  would,  in  all  probability,  not 
have  been  repeated. 

Here  the  question  might  naturally  be  asked,  if  the  pressure  of 
war  justified  the  Governor's  abdication  in  1781,  why  he  accepted 
office,  or  was  compelled  by  "  the  circumstances  of  a  perilous  war 
to  undertake  the  government,"  in  1779  ?  His  qualifications  were 
certainly  not  lessened  by  experience,  arid  it  does  not  appear  that 
he  was  disabled  by  wounds — although  in  a  letter  written  some 
few  years  ago,  he  solemnly  assured  me  that  in  his  campaign 
against  Arnold  he  actually  rode  his  horse  until  he  sunk  under 
him,  and  then  borrowed  an  unbroken  colt.  A  material  circum 
stance,  however,  the  bearing  of  that  unfortunate  animal,  at 
the  time  he  foundered  in  a  hurricane  of  dust  and  glory  under 
the  "  noble  horsemanship"  of  the  Commander-in-chief,  is  not 
noted  in  the  memorandum  with  which  I  was  furnished,  and 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  printed  log-book  which  has  been  al 
ready  referred  to.  If  conjecture  were  allowable  on  a  subject 
so  important  and  melancholy,  it  might  perhaps  be  plausibly 
inferred,  from  the  philosophical  temper  and  retiring  patriotism 
of  the  Governor  throughout  this  perilous  struggle,  that  at  no 
stage  of  his  memorable  career  was  the  horse  or  the  colt  in  pursuit 
of  Arnold. 

As  there  was  no  public  necessity  for  Mr.  Jefferson's  waiting  for 
the  expiration  of  the  official  year,  in  order  to  carry  into  execution 
his  "  long  declared"  purpose  of  retiring ;  and  if,  as  he  insists,  the 
public  good  required  that  Gen.  Nelson  should  be  appointed  Go 
vernor,  why  did  not  he  relinquish  his  office,  as  soon  as  Arnold's 
approach  was  announced?  When  this  took  place,  the  Legisla 
ture  was  in  session  at  Richmond,  and  Gen.  Nelson  was  on  the 
spot.  He  might  then  have  resigned  his  office  in  favour  of  that 
brave  and  devoted  patriot  with  as  much  modesty  and  at  least  as 
little  shame,  as  he  felt  or  exhibited  six  months  afterwards  ;  and 
with  the  assurance  that  the  capital  of  the  state  would  not  have 


131 

been  polluted  by  the  foot  of  a  parricide.  But  so  far  from  that,  Ke 
despatched  Gen.  Nelson  to  the  "  seaboard,"  and  by  so  doing,  put 
it  out  of  his  power  to  check  the  advance  of  Arnold,  as  otherwise 
he  most  certainly  would  have  done.  It  is  evident  that  had  Mr. 
Jefferson  executed  the  duties  of  his  station  properly  ;  leaving  to 
others  the  care  of  having  the  records  and  stores  "  wagoned" 
away,  of  hiding  the  arms  from  the  enemy's  shot,  and  sheltering 
the  muskets  from  rain — had  boldly  taken  the  field  with  Gen.  Nel 
son  in  front  of  the  enemy,  he  would  have  saved  Richmond  from 
insult  and  pillage,  ensured  his  re-election,  and  never  have  disco 
vered  that  by  embarrassing  a  military  officer  with  civil  duties,  his 
power  of  acting  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  would  be  invigorated. 

There  is  yet  another  reason  furnished  by  his  writings  for  be 
lieving  that  his  relinquishment  of  the  Governorship,  was  the  ef 
fect  not  of  his  being  oppressed  by  the  labours  of  office,  but  of  the 
State  being  disgusted  at  his  failure  to  perform  his  duties.  He  ad 
mits  that  a  degree  of  public  disapprobation  was  excited  by  his  con 
duct  as  Governor,  and  that  a  member  of  the  assembly,  a  man  of 
honour  and  ability,  (Mr.  George  Nicholas)  brought  specific  char 
ges  against  him  before  the  House  of  Delegates.  This  took  place 
in  the  session  of  June,  1781,  and  both  the  animadversions  of  the 
public  and  the  intentions  of  the  member  must  have  been  known 
to  him  when  he  communicated  to  Gen.  Washington  his  determi 
nation  to  retire,  that  is,  on  the  28th  of  May,  1781.  Now  allowing 
for  a  moment  that  a  consciousness  of  innocence  is  compatible 
with  retirement  under  such  circumstances — we  find  that  after  he 
became  President,  similar  circumstances  are  assigned  by  him  as 
causes  compelling  him  to  stand  a  second  election.  In  a  letter  to 
Mazzei  of  the  18th  of  July,  1804,  (V.  4.  p.  21,)  he  says—'-'  I 
should  have  retired  at  the  end  of  the  first  four  years,  but  that  the 
immense  load  of  tory  calumnies  which  have  been  manufactured 
respecting  me,  and  have  filled  the  European  market,  have  obli 
ged  me  to  appeal  once  more  to  my  country  for  justification."  The 
calumnies  here  called  tory,  a  word  which  he  uses  as  synonimous 
with  federal,  never  went  so  far  as  a  motion  to  Congress  with 
"  specific  charges"  for  his  impeachment.  Yet  though  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  had  repeatedly  declared  his  opinion  that  the  President 
ought  not  to  be  re-eligible,  we  here  find  him  provoked  by  vague 
newspaper  attacks  to  stand  a  second  election  as  President,  while, 
when  under  a  formal  impeachment  for  misconduct  as  Governor, 
he  deemed  it  magnanimous  to  decline  presenting  himself  for  re 
election,  and  to  shrink  prematurely  into  a  private  station. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  the  confusion  with  which  he  attempts 
to  navigate  his  story  between  the  interlocking  absurdities  that 


132 

obstruct  its  passage.  In  order  to  conceal  the  ignominy  of  having 
been  compelled  by  public  indignation  to  retire  at  a  season  of 
danger  and  glory  from  the  helm  of  affairs,  he  affirms  that  he 
withdrew  voluntarily  and  from  a  sense  of  fatigue.  And  then 
for  fear  of  being  overwhelmed  by  the  contempt  which  such  an 
inglorious  retreat  would  naturally  excite,  he  declares  that  he 
retired  because  he  had  not  been  lt  prepared  by  his  line  of  life  and 
education  for  the  command  of  armies."  But  this  justification  if 
good  for  any  thing  in  June,  1781,  was  certainly  better  in  Decem 
ber,  1780,  when  Arnold  first  entered  Virginia,  inasmuch  as  dur 
ing  this  interval,  Mr.  Jefferson  gained  the  only  military  expe 
rience  that  ever  crossed  "  his  line  of  life."  In  acquiring  it,  it 
must  be  confessed  he  had  shown  himself  to  be  more  of  a  Xeno- 
phon  than  an  Agesilaus,  and  had  taken  effectual  care  that  his 
retreat  should  not  be  destructive  to  his  countrymen ;  for  he 
would  not  expose  a  single  one  of  them  to  the  peril  of  attending 
him,  although  he  asserts  positively  that  he  himself  was  so  rash, 
while  nothing  but  a  river  broader  than  the  Rhine  interposed,  to 
"  lodge,"  (not  to  sleep  for  he  was  too  good  a  soldier  to  sleep  on 
his  post,)  "  frequently  within  "  four,  five  or  six  miles "  of  the 
enemy's  pickets ! 

If,  instead  of  excusing  himself  on  the  score  of  military  igno 
rance  and  inexperience,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  said  that  he  withdrew 
from  office  in  June,  because  he  discovered  that  he  was  too  young ; 
his  plea  would  have  been  to  the  full  as  rational  and  praiseworthy 
— for  the  obvious  objection  to  it  would  have  been  that  he  was 
six  months  younger  in  December,  1780  when  he  first  heard  of 
Arnold's  approach,  and  two  years  younger  in  1779,  when  he  ac 
cepted  the  office  of  Governor. 

But  this  resolution  he  assures  General  Washington  had  been 
"  long  declared."  He  also  affirms  that  it  proceeded  from  his  want 
of  military  experience  and  education.  Now  if  this  resolution 
had  been  long  entertained,  the  consciousness  of  this  defect  of  ex 
perience  and  education  which  prompted  it,  had  long  been  felt, 
and  was  as  capable  of  producing  the  effect  ascribed  to  it,  at  first, 
as  it  was  afterwards.  If  this  be  denied,  then  it  must  be  admitted 
that  between  the  time  this  consciousness  of  incapacity  first 
arose  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  mind,  and  the  day  of  his  resignation, 
circumstances  had  taken  place  which  convinced  him  that  he  was 
not  qualified  for  the  government  of  the  state  and  ought  to  with 
draw.  These  circumstances  must  have  occurred  in  the  inter 
vening  campaign,  and  if  they  were  of  a  character  so  impressive 
as  to  convince  him  of  his  own  incapacity,  they  could  not  have 
escaped  the  vigilant  notice  of  the  public,  and  must  have  satisfied 


133 

the  people  of  his  unfitness.  So  that  even  on  this  view  of  the 
matter,  he  could  not  have  been  elected,  had  he  desired  it,  and 
the  public  indignation  which  condemned  him  to  retirement,  and 
which  he  represents  as  far  as  he  admits  its  existence,  (Vol.  4.  p. 
42.)  as  senseless  and  unfair,  was  justified  by  the  whispers  of  his 
own  conscience,  and  the  convictions  of  his  own  judgment.  The 
conclusion  therefore  from  his  statement  of  his  case  is  unavoida 
ble,  either  that  he  was  inexcusable  for  retreating  from  the  public 
service,  that  is,  was  not  conscious  of  incapacity ;  or  that  the 
charges  brought  against  him  by  Mr.  Nicholas  were  justified  by 
his  conduct — an  alternative  of  equal  delinquency  and  disgrace. 

But  in  his  letter  to  Gen.  Washington  he  assigns  as  among 
the  causes  of  his  premature  descent  from  power,  a  sense  of  offi 
cial  fatigue,  the  oppressive  labours  of  office.  This  is  inconsistent 
with  his  account  of  the  transaction  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Turner. 
Therein,  no  allusion  to  fatigue  or  oppression  is  made,  but  his  de 
fective  education,  his  unwillingness  "to  stand  in  the  way  of 
talents  better  fitted  than  his  own  "  for  the  station,  and  his  convic 
tion  that  in  time  of  war  the  military  and  civil  power  should  be 
lodged  in  the  same  hands,  are  assigned  as  the  sole  and  exclusive 
reasons  for  his  retreat.  But  waiving  the  irreconcileable  proper 
ties  of  these  two  explanations,  it  may  be  observed  that  as  to  the 
sense  of  fatigue  and  experience  of  oppression,  these  could  not 
have  overcome  him  until  about  the  time  he  retired.  Neither  the 
fatigue  nor  its  effects  were  of  a  nature  to  be  foreseen  and  calcu 
lated.  Yet  he  affirms  that  the  resolution  he  executed  in  June 
was  the  same  he  had  declared  his  intention  of  executing  long 
before — that  is,  long  before  one  of  the  causes  to  which  he  as- 
scribes  it  had  come  into  existence. 

As  to  his  inferiority  to  Gen.  Nelson  that  was  either  an  equal 
and  constant  quantity  during  the  whole  period  of  his  campaign, 
or  it  was  not.  If  it  was  an  equal  and  constant  quantity,  it 
was  as  much  a  reason  in  December  as  in  June.  If  it  was  not, 
either  Gen.  Nelson  had  risen  higher  above  him  by  some  shining 
exploit,  or  he  had  sunk  lower  beneath  Gen.  Nelson  in  conse 
quence  of  some  positive  evidence  of  demerit.  Gen.  Nelson  be 
ing  sent  off  by  him  to  the  coast,  lost  the  opportunity  of  saving 
Richmond,  and  between  that  occasion  and  his  election  as  Governor, 
performed  no  signal  service.  He  therefore  did  not  rise  higher 
by  any  shining  exploit,  and  of  course,  if  this  inferiority  was  a 
motive  for  Mr.  Jefferson's  retirement,  it  must  have  been  attended 
by  some  positive  evidence  of  his  own  demerit. 

As  to  the  last  ingredient  in  this  clumsy  compound  of  excuses, 
the  evident  propriety  of  uniting  civil  and  military  power  in  the 
same  hands  whenever  a  State  is  invaded,  besides  its  general  fal~ 


134 

lacy,  and  its  inconsistency  with  Mr.  Jefferson's  political  doctrines, 
its  absurdity  with  regard  to  his  particular  case  is  easily  demon 
strated.  In  the  first  place,  by  the  constitution  of  Virginia,  the 
Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  was,  ex-afficio,  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  military  forces  of  the  Stats.  So  that  there  was  the 
same  desirable  "  union  of  the  civil  and  military  powers  "  in  Go 
vernor  Jefferson  that  there  was  to  be  in  his  successor  Governor 
Nelson.  His  retirement  could  not  produce  the  least  alteration  in 
the  character  of  his  office,  or  in  the  legal  attributes  of  the  Execu 
tiv,e.  In  the  next  place,  the  folly  of  supposing  that  by  having  to 
attend  to  the  civil  branch  of  Executive  duties  the  Governor  is  better 
able  to  execute  the  military  branch,  is  too  obvious  to  be  insisted 
on.  But  it  is  particularly  striking  when  we  consider  the  organi 
zation  of  the  Executive  in  Virginia.  By  the  Constitution  as  it 
then  stood,  the  Governor  could  not  adopt  any  official  measure 
without  the  advice  of  a  board  of  Counsellors  to  whom  he  had 
the  right  of  submitting  propositions.  But  he  could  not  even  vote 
in  their  deliberations  unless  in  the  rare  case  of  an  equal  division, 
when  he  wTas  empowered  to  give  a  casting  vote.  With  this  ma 
chinery  it  is  evident,  that  if  the  Governor  in  time  of  war  chose  to 
take  command  of  the  army  and  meet  the  enemy  in  the  field,  he 
must  pro  hac  vice,  have  separated  himself  from  his  civil  duties, 
and  have  given  them  up  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Coun 
cil,  recommending  such  measures  from  the  camp  as  he  thought 
advisable,  in  the  same  manner  that  a  commanding  general 
would  have  done.  This  was  the  case  when  Gen.  Lee  marched, 
as  Governor  of  Virginia,  against  the  Western  Insurgents.  The 
civil  duties  of  his  office  were,  during  the  whole  time  of  his  ab 
sence,  performed  by  Lieutenant  Governor  Wood.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  civil  duties  unless  abdicated,  would  have  been 
a  drawback  on  the  military  energies  of  Governor  Nelson  or  any 
other  Governor ;  and  in  fact  could  not  be  performed  by  him 
while  he  was  acting  as  a  General  in  the  field. 

But  if  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  Virginia,  in  1781,  when  that 
State  was  invaded,  and  himself  chased  from  his  Capital,  was  in 
duty  bound  to  resign  his  office  in  favour  of  a  militia  General 
who,  like  Nelson,  was  animated  by  spirit  and  patriotism,  Mr. 
Madison  in  1814  ought  to  have  resigned  his  office  of  President 
in  favour  of  Gen.  Jackson.  For  President  Madison  was  chased 
from  his  Capital,  and  like  Governor  Jefferson  was  unprepared 
"  by  his  line  of  life  and  education  for  the  command  armies." 
Governor  Tompkins  should  also  have  resigned  in  favour  of  Ge 
neral  Brown  or  General  Porter,  who  were  both  distinguished  mili 
tary  officers  of  his  own  State.  And  in  all  future  wars,  as  soon  as 
an  invasion  takes  place,  both  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State 


135 

in  which  it  happens,  and  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Union  at 
the  time,  if  they  have  not  been  "  prepared  by  their  line  of  life 
and  education  for  the  command  of  armies,"  must  feel  oppressed 
by  the  labours  of  office  even  after  having  served  but  two  years} 
and  resign  their  authority  "  into  abler  hands." 

Preposterous  and  deceptive  as  the  whole  of  this  vindication  of 
Mr.  Jefferson  is,  no  part  of  it  is  more  glaringly  so  than  the  indis 
pensable  value  he  sets  on  a  military  education.  Gen.  Warren 
was  educated  for  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  was  actually  a 
physician,  though  he  had  just  received  the  commission  of  General, 
when  he  fell  gloriously  in  the  first  of  his  fields.  Gen.  Greene 
was  brought  up  a  Quaker,  and  was  educated  a  black -smith,  and 
was  both  Gtuaker  and  black-smith,  when  he  marched  at  the  head 
of  a  Brigade  to  join  the  army,  in  the  lines  before  Boston.  Gen. 
Jackson  was  educated  originally  for  the  church,  subsequently  for 
the  Bar,  and  was  a  Judge  before  he  was  a  General.  The  lives 
of  these  glorious  men,  were  as  valuable  to  them  and  to  their 
friends  and  families,  as  Mr.  Jefferson's  could  fairly  be  ;  but  how 
nobly  did  they  offer  them  in  their  country's  defence. 

The  regular  army  of  the  United  States,  consists  but  of  6000 
men,  officers  included  ;  yet  according  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  justifica 
tion  of  himself,  if  a  war  and  invasion  were  now  to  happen,  with 
a  population  of  thirteen  millions,  and  a  confederacy  of  twenty- 
four  sovereign  States,  all  the  Governors  and  the  President,  should 
in  sound  policy,  be  taken  from  this  inconsiderable  corps. 

But  even  in  his  inglorious  seclusion,  on  the  woody  top  of 
Monticello,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  safe  from  pursuit  and  exposure — 


-Necquicquam  thalamo  graves 


Hastas,  et  calami  spicula  Gnossii 
Vitabis,  strepitumque,  et  celerem  sequi 
Ajacem :" 

He  had  hardly  nestled  himself  at  home,  when  Cornwallis 
eagerly  endeavouring  to  bring  La  Fayette  to  action,  reached 
Louisa  Court  House  ;  and  learning  there  that  the  Governor  and 
the  Legislature  had  retreated  toCharlottesville,despatched  Tarleton 
with  a  party  of  his  swift  dragoons  to  carry  them  off.  They  for 
tunately  got  timely  notice  of  his  approach,  and  though  unprepared 
and  uneducated  for  fighting,  made  their  escape,  in  the  most 
skilful  manner  ;  the  Legislature  flying  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge, 
while  Mr.  Jefferson,  from  his  own  account,  doubled  round  Carter's 
mountain.* 

*  Mr.  Jefferson  sent  off  his  family,  to  secure  them  from  danger,  and  was 
himself  still  at  Monticello,  making  arrangements  for  his  own  departure,  when 


136 

About  the  time  of  this  dispersion  of  our  tribe  of  statesmen,  it  ia 
probable  Mr.  Nicholas  had  laid  before  the  House  of  Delegates 
the  charges  on  which  he  proposed  the  impeachment.  These 
charges,  Mr.  Jefferson  tells  us  were  afterwards,  through  the 
mediation  of  a  mutual  friend,  communicated  to  him,  by  their 
author,  to  whom  he  returned  the  heads  of  the  answers  he  intend 
ed  to  make  to  them — that  eventually  Mr.  Nicholas  not  only 
relinquished  further  proceedings  against  him,  but  took  a  public 
occasion  to  withdraw  the  imputations  contained  in  his  charges, 
and  that  the  General  Assembly  "  pronounced  an  honourable 
sentence  of  entire  approbation  of  his  conduct,  and  so  much  the 
more  honourable,  as  themselves  had  been  witnesses  to  it."  There 
is  just  as  much  truth  in  this  story,  as  is  sufficient  to  cover  a  mul 
titude  of  fictions,  and  being  put  forth  in  self-defence,  would  be 
liable  to  deduction,  on  the  score  of  self-interest,  even  if  it  were 
better  made  up.  One  material  fact  at  least  is  misrepresented, 
and  the  circumstances  of  most  importance  to  truth,  are  carefully 
omitted.  The  members  of  the  General  Assembly  were  not 
witnesses  of  his  conduct  in  the  Arnold  campaign.  For  he  himself 
tells  us  (Vol.  4.  p.  39.)  that  Arnold  dis-embarked  atWestover,  at 
2,  P.  M.  on  the  4th  of  January,  entered  Richmond  at  1,  P.  M.  on 
the  5th,  and  about  the  same  hour  on  the  7th,  got  back  to  West- 
over.  He  also  states,  that  the  Legislature  rose  on  the  2d,  and 
that  the  members  bore  his  orders  to  the  militia  of  their  respective 
counties  ;  nor  does  he  intimate  that  any  of  these  gentlemen  were 
spectators  of  his  rapid  manoeuvres  on  the  right,  or  safe  side  of 
James'  River.  Besides  this  distortion  of  a  matter  of  fact,  he  makes 
no  allusion  to  the  events  which  took  place  between  his  flight  in 
June,  and  his  "  acquittal"  in  January. 

The  cause  of  the  transaction  was  evidently  this  ;  the  charges 
for  his  impeachment  were  laid  before  the  assembly  at  their  June 
session.  They  related  to  circumstances  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  official 
conduct  between  the  time  of  Arnold's  dis-embarkation  at  West- 
over,  the  4th  of  January,  1781,  and  the  election  of  Governor 
Nelson,  on  the  12th  of  June,  in  the  same  year.  Before  they 
could  be  acted  on,  Tarleton,  in  hot  pursuit  was  heard.  The 
general  assembly  itself,  the  impeacher  and  the  impeached,  were 
involved  in  one  undistinguished  flight ;  which  had  the  natural 

lieutenant  Hudson  arrived  there  at  half  speed,  and  informed  him,  the  enemy 
were  then  ascending  the  hill  of  Monticello.  He  departed  immediately,  and 
knowing  that  he  would  be  pursued  if  he  took  the  high-road,  he  plunged  into 
the  woods  of  the  adjoining  mountain;  where  being  at  once  safe,  he  proceeded 
to  overtake  his  family.  This  is  the  famous  adventure  of  Carter's  mountain." 
[Vol.  4.  p.  42.] 


137 

effect  of  producing  a  community  of  interest  if  not  a  fellowship  of 
feeling,  between  the  prosecutor,  the  delinquent,  and  the  judges. 
Soon  after  this,  Governor  Nelson  took  the  field  in  person,  at  the 
head  of  the  militia,  and  co-operated  gallantly  with  the  combined 
army  against  Cornwallis.  The  great  and  fortunate  events,  the 
siege  and  surrender  of  York  followed,  and  in  the  winter  after 
wards,  when  the  ease  of  security,  the  joy  of  triumph,  and  the 
prospect  of  peace,  had  succeeded  to  the  sense  of  danger  and  the 
din  of  war,  Mr.  Nicholas — who  felt  the  influence  of  these  events, 
was  satisfied  at  seeing  the  reins  of  government,  transferred  from 
trembling  to  firm  hands,  and  had  been  mollified  not  only  by  the 
confession  of  guilt  and  the  appeal  to  lenity,  implied  in  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  prompt  retreat  before  his  accusation,  but  by  the  blandish 
ments  of  a  mutual  friend — consented  to  withdraw  his  charges. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  the  same  temper  of  amnesty,  and 
indulgent  from  their  association  in  the  Charlottesville  scamper, 
seeing  that  Mr.  Jefferson  stood  not  only  unconvicted,  but  un- 
accused,  patched  up  his  disgrace,  as  well  as  that  of  the  State,  by 
passing  a  resolution,  bearing  testimony  to  his  patriotism,  zeal, 
and  fidelity,  generally,  as  well  as  I  remember  the  report  of  it,  in 
Gerardin's  History,  but  avoiding  any  allusion  to  the  charges,  or  to 
his  military  exploits  as  Commander-in-Chief,  upon  which  par 
ticularly  they  were  intended  to  bear.  And  this  is  what  he  calls 
"  acquit tinghim  by  anhonourablesentence  of  entire  approbation." 

Is  it  possible  to  believe  that  a  man,  who,  in  the  high  station  of 
Cornmander-in-Chief  of  the  forces  of  a  State,  engaged  in  a 
war  for  liberty  and  life,  was  conscious  of  having  performed  his 
duty,  and  of  possessing  a  claim  to  "  honourable  approbation," 
would  have  accepted  such  an  acquittal,  or  to  secure  it  would 
have  condescended  to  carry  on  a  sort  of  underplot  negotiation 
with  a  co-ordinate  officer,  on  whose  public  responsibility  had  been 
exhibited  against  him,  charges  of  shameful  misconduct,  with  a 
proposition  of  impeachment  ? 

As  Governor  of  Virginia,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  only  the  first 
civil  magistrate,  but  the  highest  military  officer  of  the  State.  Do 
the  annals  of  our  own  country  or  those  of  Europe,  furnish 
examples  to  justify  him,  either  as  magistrate  or  General,  in  thus 
accepting  mercy  and  oblivion  instead  of  insisting  on  investigation 
and  justice?  In  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  Gen.  Schuyler 
(whom  Mr.  Jefferson  includes  (Vol.  4.  p.  470.)  in  his  charge  of 
monarchism)  finding  that  Congress  was  dissatisfied  with  his 
services,  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Northern  department, 
and  had  evinced  a  persuasion  that  they  might  be  placed  in  "  abler 
hands" — though  sensible  of  this  injustice,  forbore  to  sanction  it 

18 


138 

by  a  premature  resignation,  but  in  the  winter  of  1777,  waited  on 
Congress,  and  demanded  in  person  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct. 
"  At  his  request,  a  committee,  consisting  of  a  member  from  each 
State,  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  his  conduct,  from  the  time 
he  had  held  a  command  in  the  army."*  Of  this  inquiry,  the 
effect  was,  that  Congress  "deemed  it  essential  to  the  public 
interests,  to  prevail  on  him  to  retain  his  commission. ;'t  Though 
superceded  afterwards  in  the  most  mortifying  manner,  by  the 
appointment  of  Gen.  Gates,  this  generous  patriot  withdrew 
neither  from  official  rank  nor  personal  danger,  while  unjustly 
suspended  from  command  ;  he  was  present  at  the  battle  and 
surrender  of  Saratoga,  and  witnessing  without  envy  the  victory 
of  his  successor,  by  his  generosity  to  the  vanquished,  made  the 
virtues  of  humanity  outshine  the  triumph  of  arms.* 

Judge  Chase,  when  "  specific  charges1'  were  preferred  against 
him  by  the  creatures  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  did  not  enter  into  a  nego- 
ciation  with  Mr.  Randolph  or  Mr.  Early  for  their  withdrawal. 
He  did  not  transmit  "  the  heads  of  his  justification,"  to  either  of 
his  accusers  "  through  a  mutual  friend,"  but  waited  their  attack 
before  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  completely  defeated 
their  prosecution.  Warren  Hastings — who  as  civil  and  military 
governor  of  the  English  East  India  possessions,  was  impeached 
before  the  House  of  Lords — is  not  related  to  have  tampered  with 
the  zeal  of  Mr.  Burke  by  a  confidential  exhibition  of  his  "  heads 
of  justification,"  nor  did  Lord  Melville  employ  the  ofiices  of  "  a 
mutual  friend"  in  order  to  avert  the  prosecution  of  Mr.  Whitbread. 

Mr.  Jefferson  who  had  conferred  upon  his  State  the  peculiar 
distinction  of  having  a  governor,  who  first  fled  from  his  capital  at 
the  approach  of  the  enemy,  and  next  retired  from  his  station  at 
the  threat  of  an  impeachment,  furnished  also  the  singular  ex 
ample  of  a  person  thus  situated  being  kind  enough  to  spare  his 
fellow-citizens  the  expense  of  a  public  trial,  by  a  clandestine  cor 
respondence  with  his  prosecutor. 

Can  any  one  conceive  that  Gen.  Washington,  Gen.  Jackson, 
Gen.  Hamilton,  or  Gen.  Lee,  would  have  engaged  in  such  gro 
velling  diplomacy  ?  If  any  one  of  them  had  been  placed  in  the 
station  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  had  been  guilty  of  half  his  pusilla 
nimity,  there  is  little  doubt  he  would  have  been  hung,  and  as 
little  that  his  punishment  would  have  been  just.  Yet  Mr.  Jef- 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  3.  p.  230.  t  Marshall,  Vol.  3.  p.  231. 

£  For  an  interesting  account  of  Gen.  Schuyler's  hospitality  and  attention 
io  Gen.  Burgoyne,  who  had  wantonly  burnt  his  house,  and  devastated  his 
farms, — seethe  Memoirs  of  tho  Baroness  Reidsel,  and  Thatcher's  Journal 
[p.  134.] 


139 

fersoii  was  so  confident  from  long  success  of  being  able  to  impose 
on  the  credulity  of  his  countrymen,  that  he  determined  to  turn 
his  escape  from  punishment  into  a  title  to  glory  ;  in  the  spirit  of 
ancient  Pistol, 

" From  my  weary  limbs 

Honour  is  cudgelled  ;" 

" Patches  will  I  get  unto  these  scars, 

And  swear  I  got  them  in  the  Gallic  wars." 

With  respect  to  the  assertion  that  "  Mr.  George  Nicholas  took 
a  conspicuous  occasion  afterwards,  of  his  own  free  will  and  when 
the  matter  was  entirely  at  rest,  to  retract  publicly  the  erroneous 
opinions  he  had  been  led  into  on  that  occasion,  and  to  make  just 
reparation  by  a  candid  acknowledgment  of  them" — it  is  to  be  re 
marked,  that  as  Mr.  Jefferson  neither  mentions  the  time  nor  the 
terms  of  this  acknowledgment,  nor  the  nature  of  the  circum 
stances  attending  it — he  conceals  entirely  the  sole  fact  of  import 
ance  in  this  question ;  that  is,  its  value.  If  it  was  made  imme 
diately  after  what  he  calls  his  "  acquittal"  by  the  General  As 
sembly,  it  was  the  offspring  of  the  same  fellowship  and  forgive 
ness  which  had  dictated  that  ambiguous  "  sentence  of  entire 
approbation."  If  it  was  made  long  after  that  act  of  grace  was 
passed  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  favour,  it  was  doubtless  connected  with 
some  manoeuvre  of  the  party  of  which  he  had  become  the 
acknowledged  chief  and  Mr.  Nicholas  a  leading  member. 

On  this  last  hypothesis  which  is  rendered  probable  by  the 
words,  "  afterwards,  when  the  matter  was  entirely  at  rest,"  it 
must  have  been  procured  or  intended  to  fortify  the  very  acquittal 
in  the  redeeming  efficacy  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson  exults.  But 
admitting  the  fact  of  this  acknowledgment,  and  allowing  that  it 
was  made  at  the  most  propitious  season  imaginable  for  Mr. 
Jefferson's  credit,  it  cannot  alter  or  destroy  the  great  facts  of  his 
undefended  capital,  his  hare-like  retreat  before  Arnold,  his  dis 
tance  from  danger,  his  bashful  demeanour  towards  his  county's 
foes,  and  his-  virtual  resignation  under  charges  of  impeachment. 
Though  faith  may  remove  mountains,  neither  "  candour"  nor 
"  free  will"  can  abolish  facts  like  these. 

To  close  this,  the  most  characteristic  scene  in  the  drama  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  life : — There  was  a  Mr.  Gerardin,  a  French  emi 
grant,  engaged  in  Virginia  as  instructor  of  youth.  He  was  as  I 
have  heard  a  man  of  amiable  disposition  and  cultivated  mind, 
studious  and  retired,  and  of  remarkable  simplicity  of  character. 
At  one  time  he  took  up  his  residence  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Monticello,  and  undertook  to  complete  a  very  imperfect  history  of 
Virginia.  As  his  task  embraced  the  period  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 


140 

government,  the  latter  kindly  supplied  him  with  a  full  set  of  ma 
terials,  the  chief  of  which  were  of  course  the  journal  and  justifi 
cation  that  have-been  just  exposed.  The  effect  of  this  liberality 
answered  Mr.  Jefferson's  expectations.  Mr.  Gerardin,  transformed 
from  a  wandering  pedagogue,  into  a  modern  Polybius,  totally 
unacquainted  with  the  body  of  our  traditions,  and  relying  de 
voutly  on  the  interested  statements  of  Mr.  Jefferson  himself, 
whom  lie  looked  up  to  as  a  great  statesman,  a  great  philosopher, 
a  member  of  the  French  Academy,  the  friend  of  Volney  and 
other  savans,  and  the  patron  of  all  French  theories  and  theo 
rists,  received  his  memoranda  as  Sybilline  leaves,  and  all  his 
hints  as  oracular  responses.  Of  course  he  performed  the  part  of 
a  polygraph  or  press-copy,  represented  Mr.  Jefferson  as  a  pillar 
of  state,  as  bearing  on  "  Atlantean  shoulders"  the  entire  com 
monwealth  during  his  governorship ;  and  as  overloaded  only  by 
the  weight  of  praise  contained  in  the  equivocal  resolution  of  the 
General  Assembly. 

The  book  though  feeble  and  of  limited  circulation,  was  re 
ceived  for  gospel  in  Virginia,  as  th&  men  who  could  contradict 
and  disprove  its  statements,  had  long  ceased  to  contend  against 
the  sway  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  name,  and  it  stands  now  among  the 
histories  of  the  time,  ready  to  forestall  the  opinions  of  posterity.* 

In  casting  up  the  account  then  of  the  first  period  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson's  public  life,  and  striking  a  balance  between  the  credit  to 
which  he  is  entitled,  and  the  blame  that  he  deserves,  it  appears 
from  his  own  statement  that  unless  we  make  his  authorship  of 
the  uncorrected  draft  of  the  declaration  of  independence,  (which 
had  no  effect  either  on  the  act  of  independence  itself  or  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Revolution)  with  his  legislative  labours  in  Virginia,  a 
complete  offset,  against  the  calamity  and  disgrace  of  his  governor 
ship  ;  it  appears  I  say  that  unless  we  can  come  to  this  absurd 
conclusion,  a  delinquency  on  the  score  of  public  service  stands 
fairly  made  out  against  him.  And  it  may  therefore  be  confi 
dently  affirmed  that  even  his  most  partial  admirers  will  be 
satisfied  to  make  his  deserts  and  demerits  countervail  each  other, 
and  will  gladly  agree  to  pronounce  him,  when  the  surrender  of 
York  took  place,  neither  amenable  to  censure,  nor  entitled  to 
applause. 

*  It  is  thus  recommended  to  the  world  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  (V.  1.  p.  41.) 
"  Being  now  as  it  were  identified  with  the  commonwealth  itself  "  (by  hie 
election  as  governor)  "  to  write  my  own  history  during  the  two  years  of  my 
administration,  would  be  to  write  the  public  history  of  that  portion  of  the  re 
volution  within  this  State.  This  has  been  done  by  others,  and  particularly 
by  Mr.  Gerardin,  who  wrote  his  continuation  of  Burke's  history  of  Virginia, 
while  at  Milton,  in  this  neighbourhood, had  free  access  to  all  my  papers  while 
composing  it,  and  has  given  as  faithful  an  account  as  I  could  myself." 


141 


LETTER  X. 

GENERAL  LEE,  soon  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  entered  the 
army  as  Captain  of  Cavalry,  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  His  father 
was  preparing  him  by  a  course  of  education  for  the  profession  of 
the  law,  and  he  was  just  about  embarking  for  England  to  pur 
sue  the  study  of  it  under  the  patronage  of  his  relative,  since 
known  as  Bishop  Porteous,  when  the  commencement  of  hostili 
ties  changed  his  destiny.  Besides  being  present  at  other  important 
actions,  in  the  northern  department,  he  was  at  the  battles  of 
Brandywine,  Germantown,  Monmouth,  and  Springfield  ;  and 
soon  became  a  favourite  of  Gen.  Washington.  In  the  difficult 
and  critical  operations  in  Pennsylvania,  New- Jersey,  and  New- 
York,  from  1777  to  1780  inclusive,  he  was  always  placed  near 
the  enemy,  entrusted  with  the  command  of  the  outposts,  with  the 
superintendence  of  spies,  and  with  that  kind  of  service,  which  re 
quired  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  possession  of  coolness,  address, 
and  enterprise.  During  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia  by  the 
royal  forces,  his  activity  and  success  in  straitening  their  commu 
nications,  in  cutting  off  their  light  parties  and  intercepting  their 
supplies,*  drew  on  him  the  particular  attention  of  the  enemy. 
And  being  attacked  in  consequence,  his  defence  of  the  Spread 
Eagle  Tavern,  with  only  ten  men,  against  Tarleton  at  the  head 
of  two  hundred,  which  has  been  already  alluded  to,  excited  no 
little  admiration.!  When  the  distress  of  the  army  for  provisions 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  3.  pp.  203,  325,  and  27. 

t  Marshall,  Vol.  3.  p.  377.  "  As  Captain  Lee  was  extremely  active,  and 
always  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  enemy,  a  plan  was  formed  late  in 
January,  to  surprise  and  capture  both  him  and  his  troop  in  their  quarters. 
A  very  extensive  circuit  was  made  by  a  large  body  of  cavalry,  and  four  of 
his  patrols  were  seized  without  communicating  the  alarm.  About  break  of 
day,  the  enemy  appeared,  and  the  few  men  of  the  troop  who  were  in  the  house 
with  their  captain  were  immediately  posted  at  the  doors  and  windows. 
Though  his  party  was  so  small  as  not  to  furnish  one  to  each  window,  they 
behaved  so  gallantly  as  to  drive  off  the  assailants  without  losing  a  horse  or 
more  than  one  person.  Their  quarter-master-sergeant,  who  was  out  of  the 
house  when  the  attack  commenced,  after  being  almost  cut  to  pieces,  was 
taken  prisoner.  The  whole  number  in  the  house  did  not  exceed  ten.  That 
of  the  enemy  was  said  to  amount  to  two  hundred.  They  lost  a  sergeant  and 
three  men  with  several  horses  killed  ;  and  an  officer  and  three  men  wounded. 
On  the  part  of  Captain  Lee,  except  his  patrols  and  quarter-master-sergeant 
who  were  captured  out  of  the  house,  only  Lieutenant  Lindsay  and  one  private 
were  wounded.  The  event  of  this  skirmish  gave  great  pleasure  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief.  Throughout  the  late  campaign,  Lee  had  been  eminently 
useful  to  him,  and  had  given  proofs  of  talents  as  a  partisan,  from  which  he 
had  formed  sanguine  expectations  for  the  future.  He  mentioned  this  affair 
in  his  orders  with  strong  marks  of  approbation,  and  in  a  private  letter  to  th* 


142 

reduced  Gen.  Washington  to  the  necessity  of  foraging  for  sup 
plies,  as  if  he  had  occupied  the  country  of  an  enemy,  a  measure 
which  as  may  be  supposed  excited  the  most  injurious  discontent 
among  the  inhabitants,  Lee,  being  employed  on  it,  had  the  ad 
dress  to  execute  this  painful  but  necessary  duty,  without  exciting 
the  smallest  disaffection.*  He  co-operated  as  far  as  cavalry  could 
act,  in  Gen.  Wayne's  attack  on  Stony  Point,  and  procured  the  intel 
ligence  on  which  it  was  projected-!  Indegd  from  a  part  of  his  cor 
respondence  with  Gen.  Washington  which  has  been  preserved,  it 
seems  not  improbable  that  Major  Lee  suggested  that  brilliant  en 
terprise.  In  a  letter  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  of  the  21st  of 
June,  1778,  he  observes, — 

Sir, — Since  my  last,  no  movement  has  taken  place  among 
the  enemy  encamped  on  this  side  the  river.  Two  very  intel 
ligent  deserters  this  morning  from  Stony  Point,  mention  that 
yesterday  a  body  of  troops  (number  unknown)  embarked  from 
the  east  side  of  the  river  between  the  hours  of  twelve  and 
two.  They  confirm  the  information  contained  in  my  last, 
concerning  the  63d  and  64th  regiments  being  about  to  move 
from  Stony  Point.  They  also  say,  that  two  days  since,  the 
sick  and  the  aged  soldiers,  the  women  with  children,  and  the 
baggage  belonging  to  both  officers  and  soldiers  were  put  on  board 
for  New- York.  The  following  is  not  a  very  accurate  state  of 
their  naval  force  at  King's-Ferry. — 

One  50  Gun  Ship — the  Rainbow. 

Armed  Sloops  and  Schooners. 

Floating  Batteries. 


Gunboats. 


Numbers  not  ascertained. 


Bomb  Ketches. 

Row  Gallies. 

Transports  and  Victuallers.  j 

Their  chief  work  on  Stony  Point  is  a  triangular  fort,  on  the 
summit  of  the  eminence,  exceedingly  strong,  and  doubly  abattied. 
On  every  spot  in  their  camp  which  admits  of  it,  they  have  erect 
ed  batteries.  They  talk  also  of  opening  a  canal  and  forming 

Captain,  testified  the  satisfaction  he  felt  at  the  honourable  escape  that  officer 
had  made  from  a  stratagem  which  had  so  seriously  threatened  him.  For  his 
merit  through  the  preceeding  campaign,  Congress  promoted  him  to  the  rank 
of  Major,  and  gave  him  an  independent  partisan  corps  to  consist  of  two  troops 
of  horse,  and  by  a  subsequent  resolution,  another  troop  was  added  to  tbi« 
corps." 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  3.  p.  372.  "  Captain  Lee  found  large  droves  in  the  marsh 
meadows  on  the  Delaware  preparing  for  Philadelphia,  which  he  had  the  ad 
dress  to  procure,  without  giving  to  the  body  of  the  people  any  additional  irri 
tation." 

t  Marshall,  Vol.  4.  p.  73. 


143 

drawbridges.  They  have  in  their  several  works,  7  twenty-fours, 
2  medium  twelves,  2  long  twelves,  and  2  threes,  all  brass.  They 
also  have  one  howitzer  and  two  mortars,  and  6  iron  sixes  not 
mounted.  Gen.  Clinton  is  not  yet  returned  from  Newr-York — 
Gen.  Vaughan  commands  in  chief — Col.  Johnston  of  the  I7th, 
commands  at  Stony  Point.  It  is  reported  in  their  camp  that 
Lord  Cornwallis  has  arrived  at  the  Hook  with  a  reinforcement, 
under  convoy  of  Admiral  Arbuthnot.  They  do  not  credit  the 
news  from  the  Southward.  I  begin  to  apprehend  that  Gen. 
Clinton  has  designs  up  the  East  River.  He  certainly  means 
to  draw  off  all  the  tfoops  but  a  sufficient  garrison  to  possess  the 
ferry.  This  he  keeps  to  distress  us  in  the  conveyance  of  support 
to  our  troops,  should  your  excellency  follow  him  to  the  eastward 
as  expected.  Your  excellency  will  pardon  me  for  the  intrusion 
of  my  opinion.  It  proceeds  only  from  a  desire  to  exhibit  every 
probable  object  that  may  engage  the  enemy's  attention.  Many 
deserters  get  in  from  your  excellency's  army.  The  manner  of 
sending  scouts  by  detail  from  divisions,  affords  them  good  oppor 
tunity.  A  detachment  seldom  comes  down  without  losing  several 
of  its  men  before  they  return.  There  can  be  no  object  in  the 
reach  of  these  parties  adequate  to  their  certain  loss.  Good  intel 
ligence  cannot  be  obtained  by  flying  parties.  The  enemy  con 
tinue  so  close  within  their  lines  that  there  can  be  no  hopes  of 
meeting  with  marauders,  and  protecting  the  people  from  their 
depredations.  Picquets  of  armies  stationary  and  under  cover  of 
works  cannot  be  easily  carried.  Officers  in  command  anxious 
to  perform  some  service,  are  apt  to  engage  in  improbable  attempts. 
Accidents  happen  and  soldiers  are  lost  without  venture  of  service. 
I  lay  these  observations  before  your  excellency  because  they  ori 
ginate  from  what  I  see  and  know. 

I  am,  <fec.  (fee. 

H.  LEE,  JR. 

In  the  course  of  this  severe  campaign  when  desertions  from 
the  American  army  became  so  frequent  as  to  threaten  its  disso 
lution,  Major  Lee  was  authorized  by  Gen.  Washington  to  inflict 
summary  punishment  on  such  deserters  as  he  should  take  fla- 
grante  delicto.  Being  in  command  of  the  outposts  and  always 
close  to  the  enemy,  these  offenders  often  fell  into  his  hands.  He 
commenced  accordingly  by  hanging  one  of  a  party,  and  to  strike 
a  wholesome  terror  into  the  main  army  sent  the  lopped  and 
bleeding  head  to  Gen.  Washington's  camp.  This  last  proceed 
ing-  was  not  altogether  approved  by  the  Commander-in-Chief, 
though,  contrary  to  hip  apprehensions  it  is  known  to  have  pro- 


144 

duced  a  most  salutary  effect.     In  relation  to  it  ho  wrote  to  Major 
Lee,  the  following  note — 

"  Head  Quarters,  New  Windsor,  10th  July,  1779. 

"  Sir, — I  have  this  moment  received  your  letter  of  the  9th.  I 
wish  mine  of  the  same  date  had  got  to  hand  before  the  transac 
tion  you  mention,  had  taken  place.  I  fear  it  will  have  a,  bad  ef 
fect  both  in  the  army  and  in  the  country.*  I  would  by  no  means 
have  you  to  carry  into  execution  your  plan  of  diversifying  the 
punishment,  or  in  any  way  to  exceed  the  spirit  of  my  instructions 
yesterday.  And  even  the  measure  I  have  Authorized  ought  to 
be  practised  with  great  caution.  I  am  Sir,  &c.  &c. 

GEO.  WASHINGTON." 

P.  S.  You  will  send  and  have  the  body  buried  lest  it  fall  into 
the  enemy's  hands. 
MAJOR  H.  LEE, 
L.  D. 

The  orders  he  received  and  the  reports  he  transmitted  during 
the  campaigns  of  1779  and  80,  were  daily,  and  shew  that  Gen. 
Washington  relied  on  him  peculiarly  for  intelligence  respecting 
the  enemy's  force  and  movements.  It  appears  in  short  that  at 
this  early  period  he  had  so  completely  engaged  the  confidence  of 
that  great  Commander,  that  in  an  official  letter  of  the  7th  of 
October,  1779,  he  was  directed  in  future  to  mark  his  communica 
tions  with  the  word  private,  so  that  they  should  not  be  examined 
even  by  the  officers  of  the  General's  military  family. 

When  compassion  for  the  impending  fate  of  Major  Andre  in 
duced  Gen.  Washington  in  the  hope  of  averting  it,  to  make  ex 
traordinary  exertions  to  capture  Arnold,  he  consulted  Lee — who 
planned  the  scheme,  and  selected  the  agent  for  that  purpose, 
which  are  both  so  graphically  described  in  his  Memoirs.*  He 
projected  and  executed  the  surprise  of  Powles  Hook,  a  service 
for  which  the  thanks  of  Congress  with  an  emblematical  medal 
of  gold  were  voted  him ;  a  distinction  which  no  other  officer 
below  the  rank  of  Geh.  received  during  the  war. 

These  services  of  Gen.  Lee,  which  with  various  others  are  not 
mentioned  in  his  memoirs,  are  here  epitomized  or  alluded  to,  lor 
the  purpose  of  balancing  the  careful  and  ostentatious  catalogue 
which  Mr.  Jefferson  draws  up  of  his  own  revolutionary  perfor 
mances.  They  gained  for  him  a  reputation  lor  talent  and  patriot- 

*  See  the  letters  of  Gun.  Washington  on  this  subject  published  in  Lee's 
Memoirs. 


145 

ism,  which  induced  Congress  in  "November,  1780,  to  promote 
him  to  a  Lieutenant  Colonelcy  of  dragoons,  and  to  augment  his 
corps  by  adding  to  it  three  companies  of  infantry,  the  officers 
and  men  composing  which,  he  was  authorised  by  Gen.  Wash 
ington  to  select  from  the  whole  army. 

With  this  chosen  corps,  he  was  soon  detached  to  join  the 
army  of  Gen.  Greene  in  the  south,  where  great  exertions  were 
required  to  recover  the  ground  lost  by  Gates's  defeat  at  Camden. 
On  this  occasion,  his  patriotism  exalted  by  the  misfortunes  of  his 
country,  he  expended  in  the  purchase  of  horses  for  his  dragoons, 
and  in  equipping  his  corps,  a  considerable  part  of  the  small  for 
tune  given  him  by  his  father,  a  contribution  for  which,  though  it 
proved  of  essential  advantage  to  his  country,  he  never  received, 
nor  even  asked,  remuneration. 

The  same  public  disaster  seemed  to  affect  Governor  Jefferson's 
patriotism  in  a  very  different  manner,  for  on  the  15th  of  Sep 
tember,  1780,  (V.  1.  p.  181)  we  find  him  addressing  the  following 
careful  epistle  to  Gen.  Stevens,  at  a  time  when  the  attention  of 
that  gallant  officer  was  doubtless  altogether  engrossed  by  his 
public  cares.  "Among  the  wagons  impressed  for  the  use  of  your 
militia  were  two  of  mine.  One  of  these,  I  know  is  safe,  having 
been  on  its  way  from  hence  to  Hillsborough,  at  the  time  of  the 
late  engagement.  The  other,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  was  on 
the  field.  A  wagon  master,  who  says  he  was  near  it,  informs 
me,  the  brigade  quarter  master  cut  out  one  of  my  best  horses  and 
made  his  escape  on  him,  and  that  he  saw  my  wagoner  loosening 
his  own  horse  to  come  off,  but  the  enemy's  horse  were  then 
coming  up,  and  he  knows  nothing  further.  He  was  a  negro 
man,  named  Phiil,  lame  in  one  arm  and  leg.  If  you  will  do  me 
the  favour  to  inquire  what  is  become  of  him,  what  horses  are 
saved,  and  to  send  them  to  me  I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you. 
The  horses  were  not  public  property,  as  they  were  only  impressed 
and  not  sold.  Perhaps  your  certificate  of  what  is  lost  may  be 
necesary  for  me.  The  wagon  master  told  me  that  the  public  money 
was  in  my  wagon,  a  circumstance,  which  may,  perhaps,  aid  your 
inquiries."  So  that  the  Governor,  in  this  season  of  general  cala 
mity,  did  not  forget  number  one,  and  so  far  from  being  actuated 
by  a  feeling  so  unphilosophical  as  humanity  for  <•  lame  Phill," 
was  of  opinion  that  a  certificate  of  his  loss,  would  be  a  good  sub 
stitute  for  the  Nigger.  As  to  the  loss  the  country  sustained  of 
public  money  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  he  only 
mentions  it  as  "  a  circumstance"  which  might  lead  to  the  reco 
very  of  his  own  property. 

19 


146 

About  the  time  Governor  Jefferson  was  completing  his  memo 
rable  warfare  against  Arnold,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Lee  joined  the 
army  of  Gen.  Greene.  Under  the  orders  of  that  able  Com 
mander  his  exertions  are  well  known  to  have  been  indefatigable, 
and  his  services  various  and  important.  He  assisted  conspicuous 
ly  in  the  battles  of  Guilford  and  Eutaw,  at  the  seiges  of  Ninety- 
six,  Augusta,  Fort  Watson  and  Fort  Motte.  He  reduced  Fort 
Granby,  surprised  Georgetown,  dispersed  and  cut  to  pieces  the 
tories  of  North  Carolina,  and  projected  and  undertook  the  bold 
and  well-concerted  enterprise  against  St.  John's  Island,  which 
failed  in  the  execution,  from  an  error  not  attributable  to  him.  In 
the  course  of  Greene's  operations  he  was  always  in  the  rear  when 
the  army  retreated,  in  the  van  when  it  advanced,  and  nearest  to 
the  enemy  when  it  was  stationary — and  so  active  were  his  ope 
rations,  when  detached,  that  in  the  space  of  six  weeks,  besides 
the  loss  he  inflicted  on  the  enemy  in  killed  and  wounded,  he 
took  from  them  prisoners  amounting  to  four  times  the  number 
of  his  own  corps.  "  The  continued  labours  and  exertions  of  all 
were  highly  meritorious,  but  the  successful  activity  of  one  corps 
will  attract  particular  attention.  The  legion,  from  its  structure, 
was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  partisan  war  of  the  southern  States, 
and  by  being  detached  against  the  weaker  posts  of  the  enemy  had 
opportunities  for  displaying  with  advantage  all  the  energies  it 
possessed.  In  that  extensive  sweep  which  it  made  from  the  Santee 
to  Augusta,  which  employed  from  the  15th  of  April  to  the  5th  of 
June,  this  corps,  acting  in  conjunction,  first  with  Marion,  after 
wards  with  Pickens,  and  sometimes  alone,  had  constituted  the 
principal  force  which  carried  five  British  posts,  and  made  up 
wards  of  eleven  hundred  prisoners."* 

But  above  all  these  services  in  dignity  and  effect  was  "  the  bold 
and  happy  resolution,"*  with  which  he  inspired  the  mind  of 
Greene,  to  return  from  Deep  River  into  South  Carolina,  leaving 
Lord  Cornwallis  to  penetrate  into  Virginia.  The  effect  of  this 
movement  in  rescuing  from  subjugation  the  three  southern  States, 
in  confining  Lord  Cornwallis  to  Virginia,  and  bringing  about  the 
great  catastrophe  at  York,  which  closed  the  military  operations  of 
the  revolution,  need  not  be  here  explained.  At  the  time  it  was 
suggested,  the  two  Carolinas  and  Georgia  were  in  the  condition 
of  British  provinces,  and  Gen.  Greene's  camp  was  the  limit  of 
American  sovereignty  within  them.  It  is  true  that  the  stubborn 
patriotism  and  indomitable  courage  of  Sumter,  Marion,  Pickens, 
and  Clarke,  still  survived  this  general  prostration,  and  it  is  also 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  4.  p.  536.  t  Ibid.  Vol.  4*  p.  384. 


147 

true  that  Governor  Rutledge,  still  hovered  over  his  loved  state, 
with  the  wings  of  a  dove,  and  the  spirit  of  an  eagle.  But  without 
the  vivifying  presence  of  Greene  and  his  army,  these  men  of  forti 
tude  and  virtue,  could  only  have  prolonged  the  agony  of  their 
country's  overthrow. 

It  may  be  added,  that  after  the  battle  of  Eutaw,  military  opera 
tions  having  been  suspended  by  the  excessive  heat  of  the  south 
for  a  few  weeks,  Lieut.  Col.  Lee  repaired  to  the  head  quarters  of 
Gen.  Washington,  on  a  mission  of  importance  from  Gen.  Greene, 
and  was  present  at  the  siege  and  surrender  of  York ;  where, 
though  he  found  that  his  native  State  had  called  all  her  sons  to 
the  field  to  assist  in  this  final  struggle,  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had 
solemnly  pledged  "  his  life,  his  fortune,  and  his  sacred  honour," 
in  the  contest,  was  not  to  be  seen. 

This  part  of  Gen.  Lee's  history  may  be  closed  by  observing 
that  when  upon  the  termination  of  the  last  campaign  in  Carolina, 
he  retired  from  the  army  of  Geri.  Greene  on  furlough — the  only 
one  he  obtained  during  the  war — that  great  officer  who  knew  the 
value  of  men,  and  had  been  aided  by  the  services  of  such  men  as 
Morgan,  Wayne,  Williams,  Washington  the  younger,  Howard, 
Laurens,  Campbell,  Sumter,  Marion,  and  Pickens,  used  the  follow 
ing  language  in  a  letter  to  the  president  of  Congress,  Feb.  18, 1 782. 
"  Lieut.  Col.  Lee  retires  for  a  time  for  the  recovery  of  his  health. 
I  am  more  indebted  to  this  officer  than  any  other,  for  the  advanta 
ges  gained  over  the  enemy  in  the  operations  of  the  last  campaign, 
and  should  be  wanting  in  gratitude  not  to  acknowledge  the  im 
portance  of  his  services,  a  detail  of  which  is  his  best  panegyric."* 

So  far  then,  up  to  the  close  of  the  revolution,  it  appears  from 
the  evidence  of  general  history,  that  the  sum  of  services  rendered 
by  Gen.  Lee  to  his  country,  although  his  rank  was  inconsidera 
ble,  and  his  authority  limited,  was  positively  great,  and  unreduced 
by  a  single  act  of  delinquency.  Besides  executing  the  duties  at 
tached  to  the  several  stations  he  occupied,  with  an  efficiency 
which  secured  the  confidence  of  his  commanders,  and  the  distin 
guished  approbation  of  Congress,  he  had  by  the  unassisted  exer 
tions  of  his  own  mind,  risen  far  above  their  subordinate  sphere, 
and  by  fertility  of  thought,  as  well  as  enterprise  in  arms,  had 
been  the  principal  instrument  in  restoring  three  important  States 
to  the  Union.  While  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  declared  that  Gen.  Lee 
"  had  been  too  much  trusted  by  his  country,"  when  clothed  with 
the  dignity  and  power  of  the  most  populous  and  warlike  member 
of  the  confederacy,  yielded  without  an  attempt  at  defence,  or  a 

*  Gordon.  London  ed.  V.  4.  p.  254  et  seq. 


148 

momentary  exposure  of  his  person,  her  capital,  her  arms,  her  ar 
chives,  and  her  honour,  to  a  conscience  stricken  traitor,  and  a  pre 
datory  band  of  deserters. 

This  was  the  state  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  and  Gen.  Lee's  compara 
tive  merit,  as  public  servants,  at  the  time  when  peace  and  inde 
pendence,  in  consequence  of  such  spirit  as  the  latter  had  exhibit 
ed,  and  in  spite  of  the  pusillanimity  betrayed  by  the  former, 
crowned  the  arms  and  efforts  of  the  United  States. 


LETTER  XL 

PROCEEDING  to  the  second  division  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  public  life, 
and  confiding  in  his  own  estimate  of  his  services,  it  appears  that 
in  May,  1782,  the  blast  of  indignation  to  which  he  bent  like  a 
reed,  having  overblown,  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  more  sensible 
of  his  political  talents  than  of  his  military  demerits,  appointed 
him  again,  one  of  their  delegates  to  Congress.  While  a  mem 
ber  of  that  body,  he  proposed,  as  an  amendment  to  Morris's  re 
port  on  the  currency,  the  decimal  notation  of  money  now  in  use. 
In  1784,  he  was  commissioned  by  Congress,  to  negotiate  in  con 
junction  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Adams,  treaties  of  commerce 
with  such  of  the  governments  of  Europe  as  might  be  disposed  to 
establish  relations  of  the  kind  with  the  United  States  ;  and  in 
the  year  following  he  succeeded  Dr.  Franklin,  as  minister  to  the 
court  of  France.  In  this  situation  which  was  well  suited  to  his 
mind,  he  displayed  diligence  and  ability,  which  however  credita 
ble  to  himself  as  a  diplomatist,  effected  no  important  nogotiation 
for  his  country. 

In  the  autumn  of  1790,  he  returned  home,  and  in  the  spring 
following,  as  we  have  already  seen,  at  the  instance  of  Gen.  Wash 
ington,  took  charge  of  the  department  of  State.  In  this  station 
also  his  abilities  were  conspicuous,  and  until  he  became  the  pa 
tron  of  those  designing  individuals  and  deluded  multitudes  who 
endeavoured  to  force  the  government  of  the  United  States  into  an 
alliance  with  France  and  a  war  with  England,  it  may  be  said, 
they  were  laudably  exerted.  His  career  as  the  Chief  of  Gen. 
Washington's  cabinet,  was  however  not  a  successful  one,  since 
in  his  hands,  notwithstanding  the  influence  of  Washington's  fame 
and  wisdom,  our  relations  with  France  degenerated  into  insup 
portable  arrogance  on  the  part  of  her  agents  ;  with  England,  were 
left  perfectly  unsettled,  both  as  to  commerce  and  boundaries ;  and 
with  Spain,  in  a  course  of  injury  and  neglect  on  the  part  of  that 


149 

power,  which  was  as  unfavourable  to  the  reputation  as  to  the  in 
terest  of  our  country. 

From  this  situation,  our  foreign  relations  were  not  retrieved  un 
til  after  Mr.  Jefferson's  resignation  ;  when  the  treaties  with  Great 
Britain,  Spain  and  Algiers,  the  defeat  of  the  Indians  by  Gen. 
Wayne,  and  the  suppression  of  the  western  insurrection  by  Gen. 
Lee,  the  principal  of  which  measures  Mr.  Jefferson  reprobated, 
placed  our  external  and  domestic  affairs  on  a  new  and  satisfactory 
footing,  and  enabled  Gen.  Washington  at  the  opening  of  the  ses 
sion  of  Congress,  in  1795,  to  use  the  following  language :  "  I  trust 
I  do  not  deceive  myself  while  I  indulge  the  persuasion  that  I  have 
never  yet  met  you  at  any  period,  when,  more  than  at  present, 
the  situation  of  our  public  affairs  has  afforded  just  cause  for  mu 
tual  congratulation  ;  and  for  inviting  you  to  join  with  me  in  pro 
found  gratitude  to  the  Author  of  all  good  for  the  numerous  and 
extraordinary  blessings  we  enjoy."  "  This  interesting  summa 
ry  of  our  affairs  with  regard  to  the  powers  between  whom  and 
the  United  States  controversies  have  subsisted  ;  and  with  regard 
also  to  our  Indian  neighbours,  with  whom  we  have  been  in  a  state 
of  enmity  or  misunderstanding,  opens  a  wide  field  for  consoling 
and  gratifying  reflections."* 

Mr.  Jefferson  resigned  in  December,  1793,  flying,  as  it  would 
seem,  from  the  temptations  of  power  to  the  pure  embraces  of  soli 
tude  and  philosophy — where  instead  of  contributing  to  the  im 
provement  of  his  country  or  the  instruction  of  mankind,  he  ap 
pears,  from  his  "  Writings"  which  have  been  so  ostentatiously 
published,  to  have  cultivated  exclusively  the  sciences  of  deception 
and  slander. 

In  December,  1794,  accordingly,  the  fruit  of  his  studies  began 
to  appear  in  the  letter  to  Mr.  Madison,  with  which  commences 
that  course  of  insidious  detraction  against  Gen.  Washington, 
which  has  been  already  traced  out  to  you  ;  that  sowed  the  seeds 
of  civil  discord  and  foreign  war,  disturbed  the  peace  and  obscured 
the  glory  of  the  father  of  our  country,  \vas  more  ungrateful  than 
unjust,  and  more  relentless  even  than  malignant. 

In  1797,  Mr.  Jefferson  became  Vice  President  of  the  United 
States — a  station  in  which,  it  appears  from  his  "  Writings,"  he 
was  altogether  employed  in  vilifying  with  terms  of  hate  and 
falsehood,  the  great  men  among  his  fellow-citizens  who  happened 
to  differ  with  him  in  opinion  on  public  matters— such  as  Hamil 
ton,  Jay,  and  Marshall — and  in  furthering  his  own  views  on  the 
presidency  by  deluding  his  political  friends,  such  as  Madison, 

*  Marsh  all,  V.  5.  pp.  642-3. 


150 

Burr,  and  Monroe,  by  false  alarms,  false  professions,  and  false 
statements.  In  1801,  his  schemes  were  consummated,  and  he 
was  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  This  exalted  station, 
as  you  know,  he  occupied  eight  years — during  which  time  the 
acts  that  distinguished  him  as  a  statesman  were,  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana,  the  perpetual  embargo,  and  the  gun-boat  system. 

The  first  was  a  measure  of  such  capital  advantage  to  the  Uni 
ted  States,  that  it  is  even  yet  impossible  t*  conceive  the  full  extent 
of  its  utility.  A  century  may  revolve  without  completing  the 
developement  of  great  and  benignant  consequences  which  the 
acquisition  of  that  vast  territory  with  its  deep  fertility,  its  lofty 
forests,  its  mineral  wealth,  its  rich  savannahs,  its  matchless  rivers, 
its  natural  outlets  to  either  ocean,  is  destined  to  produce.  When 
we  consider  the  rapid  flow  of  population  which  is  covering  it  with 
the  best  rudiments  of  social  and  political  life,  it  seems  as  if  we  be 
held  the  work  of  enchantment,  rather  than  the  effect  of  policy ; 
as  if  a  magic  wand  had  waved  over  that  wide  and  luxuriant  re 
gion,  and  was  rearing  upon  its  surface  a  city  of  empires.  Who 
ever  conceived  the  measure,  whether  it  originated  in  an  overture 
from  the  French  Government  or  in  a  proposition  from  ours — or 
whether  as  seems  probable  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  "  Writings"  (Y.  3. 
pp.  493,  501  and  4)  it  was  a  project  completed  by  degrees — rising 
from  an  attempt  to  purchase  the  lower  country  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Mississippi,  with  a  view  of  securing  to  the  United  States  the 
free  navigation  of  that  river,  to  the  more  splendid  and  important 
conception  of  annexing  to  the  domain  of  the  nation  that  fertile 
and  extensive  territory,  the  credit  of  the  acquisition  is  solely  due 
to  Mr.  Jefferson.  He  embraced  the  design  with  ardour,  prose 
cuted  it  with  zeal,  and  justified  it  with  confidence. 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  in  the  light  in  which  he 
regarded  its  consequences,  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  would  not 
have  proved  what  it  now  is,  and  I  trust  always  will  be,  an  ines 
timable  advantage  to  the  United  States.  Mr.  Jefferson  considered 
it  as  not  unlikely  to  produce  a  separation  of  the  Union,  as  the  pro 
bable  forerunner  of  two  confederacies,  one  to  be  composed  of  the 
western,  and  the  other  of  the  Atlantic  States,  (V.  4.  p.  14.) 
"  Whether  we  remain  in  one  confederacy,  or  form  into  Atlantic 
and  Mississippi  confederacies,  I  believe  not  very  important  to  the 
happiness  of  either  part."  Had  this  been  its  probable  consequence, 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana  would  not  have  been  an  act  of  wisdom 
on  the  part  of  the  government  of  the  United  States.  For  it  would 
have  been  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  contribution  on  the  part  of 
the  Atlantic  States  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  for  the  purpose 
of  detaching  from  their  own  possession  all  the  western  territory 


151 

which  they  then  held  on  both  banks  of  the  Ohio,  for  reducing 
their  remaining  limited  confederacy  to  insignificance,  and  expos 
ing  it  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  to  endless  hostility.* 

But  as  this  was  not  the  probable  consequence  of  the  measure, 
as  the  greatest  of  all  its  advantages  was  its  strong  and  direct  ten 
dency  to  perpetuate  the  Union,  by  comprehending  within  its  do 
minion  all  the  interests  of  each  of  its  members,  Mr.  Jefferson, 
while  he  supposed  he  was  entailing  what  would  have  been  even 
tual  ruin  on  his  country,  was  actually  endowing  it  with  magnific 
sources  of  wealth,  freedom,  happiness,  and  power. 

It  may  be  doubted  likewise  whether  in  his  conduct  of  the  ne 
gotiation,  the  prudence  of  a  statesman  was  displayed.  It  was  to 
be  a  purchase — and  the  pivot  on  which  the  transaction  was  poised, 
was  the  want  of  money  on  the  part  of  the  French  government. 
(V.  3.  p.  502.)  "  As  to  the  time  of  your  going,  you  cannot  too 
much  hasten  it,  as  the  moment  in  France  is  critical,  St.  Domin 
go  delays  their  taking  possession  of  Louisiana,  and  they  are  in 
the  last  distress  for  money  for  current  purposes."  Robert  R.  Li 
vingston,  a  man  of  high  character  and  talents,  according  to  Mr. 
Jefferson's  own  confession,  (V.  3.  p.  443.)  was  our  resident  mi 
nister  in  France,  and  was  already  engaged  in  the  negotiation, 
(V.  3.  p.  493.)  when  Mr.  Jefferson  thought  fit  to  despatch  Mr. 
Monroe,  as  a  special  envoy  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  the  pur 
chase.  As  Mr.  Livingston  was  every  way  qualified  for  his-  sta 
tion,  and  was  known  at  the  time  to  be  actually  engaged  in  the 
negotiation,  this  extraordinary  mission  of  Mr.  Monroe,  could  have 
had  but  one  effect  on  Mr.  Livingston — that  of  disgusting  him  with 
his  office  and  his  employer.  Its  tendency  in  other  directions, 
must  have  been  equally  pernicious.  By  betraying  over-anxiety 
in  our  government  to  make  the  purchase,  its  natural  effect  was 
to  raise  the  price  demanded  by  France,  or  at  least  to  defeat  any 
attempt  of  Mr.  Livingston  to  lower  those  demands.  These  con 
sequences  of  the  mission,  if  it  had  been  so  timed  as  to  produce  any 
effect  at  all  on  the  transaction,  were  from  the  nature  of  things, 
inevitable,  and  unless  it  be  possible  to  conceive  that  such  a  man  as 
Mr.  Monroe  could  by  personal  address  and  diplomatic  eloquence, 
overpower  the  genius  of  Napoleon  and  defeat  the  dexterity  of 
Talleyrand ;  they  were  unattended  by  the  slightest  hope  of  ad 
vantage  to  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  but  Mr.  Monroe  him 
self.  He  had  been  instrumental  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  election,  and 

*  Vol.  3,  p.  505.  "  Whatever  power  other  than  ourselves,  holds  the  country 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  becomes  our  natural  enemy."  [p.  512.1  "  We  have 
seldom  seen  neighbourhood  produce  affection  among  nations,  the  reverse  is 
almost  the  universal  truth." 


152 

was  some  how  or  other  to  be  provided  for.  Now  as  Mr.  Jefferson 
the  President,  and  Mr.  Madison  the  Secretary  of  State,  were  both 
citizens  of  Virginia,  it  was  not  possible  to  confer  an  appointment 
of  sufficient  dignity  and  emolument  at  home,  on  Mr.  Monroe,  who 
was  also  a  citizen  of  that  state.  He  was  therefore  accommodated 
with  this  special  mission  to  France,  which,  as  Mr.  Livingston  had 
settled  the  terms  of  the  purchase  before  his  arrival,  was  though 
perfectly  useless,  fortunately  not  mischievous.* 

Having  assisted  in  the  important  work  of  signing  the  treaty 
of  purchase,  Mr.  Monroe  was  despatched  from  France  to  Spain  on 
another  mission  of  pretended  importance,  but  of  no  utility,  and  was 
thence  transferred  to  the  situation  of  minister  to  the  Court  of 
Great  Britain,  where  he  terminated  his  diplomatic  career  under 
Mr.  Jefferson,  as  he  had  begun  it  under  Gen.  Washington,  by  de 
parting  from  the  spirit  of  his  instructions,  and  by  signing  a  treaty 
so  little  acceptable  to  his  government,  that  his  friend  and  patron 
President  Jefferson,  would  not  even  submit  it  for  consideration  to 
the  Senate. 

If  there  be  an  absurdity  of  American  statesmanship,  extrava 
gant  and  ruinous  enough  to  counterbalance  the  fortunate  policy 
which  compassed  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  it  is  to  be  found 
in  Mr.  Jefferson's  famous  embargo.  It  is  impossible  for  the  most 
fantastical  theorist  to  conceive  any  combination  of  political  ideas 
more  puerile  and  visionary,  than  those  which  entered  into  this 
project.  It  was  intended  to  humble  Great  Britain  if  not  to  anni 
hilate  her.  by  withholding  our  exports  of  flour  and  grain,  and 
was  persisted  in  after  it  was  proved  that  the  whole  of  our  exports 
of  flour  for  a  year,  would  not  supply  one  week's  consumption  for 
the  city  of  London  ! 

With  this  suicide  of  our  prosperous  navigation  and  growing 
commerce,  a  measure  which  to  the  last  Mr.  Jefferson  extolled  as 
the  master-stroke  of  his  political  judgment,  which  was  the  ob 
ject  of  contempt  and  ridicule  abroad,  and  of  misery  and  disgust 
at  home,  may  be  associated  as  a  kindred,  though  a  lesser  folly, 
the  annihilation  of  our  navy,  and  the  substitution  of  a  flotilla  of 
gunboats.  As  the  perpetual  embargo  was  declared  to  be  intend 
ed  for  the  protection  of  our  navigation  and  commerce,  (Yol.  4.  p. 
148.)  so  was  this  destruction  of  our  infant  navy  affirmed  to  be  the 
establishment  of  our  maritime  strength  and  the  means  of  se 
curing  us  the  enjoyment  of  peace.  (Vol.  3.  p.  409,  et  passim.) 

*  The  fact  of  Mr.  Monroe's  perfect  uselessness  on  this  occasion  has  been 
very  conclusively  explained  by  Gen.  Armstrong,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Living- 
sion,  in  an  obituarv  of  that  gentleman.  Sec  Gardner's  United  States  Maga- 


153 

On  the  credit  side  of  this  account,  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  idola- 
tors  have  insisted  that  he  has  a  right  to  charge  the  abolition  of 
weekly  levees,  as  introducing  a  simplicity  in  the  carriage  of  the 
Executive  congenial  with  the  spirit  of  a  republic.  But  both  he 
and  they  should  have  recollected  that  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  not  a  personage  eagerly  sought  after,  and  studiously  gazed  at 
like  Gen.  Washington,  if  he  had  continued  the  weekly  levees,  in 
stead  of  reducing  those  "forms  of  government,"  to  three  occasions 
yearly,  his  preparations  for  visitors,  his  sitting  up  for  company, 
would  have  been  "calling  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep." 

Connected  with  this  pretension  and  equally  frivolous,  is  his 
claim  to  republican  modesty  and  plain  dealing  in  opening  the 
sessions  of  Congress  by  a  written  message,  instead  of  a  speech. 
As  I  have  already  intimated,  the  difference  of  these  two  modes  of 
proceeding,  if  worth  estimating,  is  certainly  in  favour  of  the  frank 
and  respectful  custom  of  Gen.  Washington.  Every  government 
has  it  proper  and  characteristic  habits.  Those  of  pomp  and 
splendour  belong  to  a  monarchy,  those  of  simplicity  and  fairness 
are  suited  to  a  republic.  Into  these  Gen.  Washington,  filled 
with  genuine  republican  virtue,  promptly  and  easily  entered.  He 
met  the  co-ordinate  branches  of  government  face  to  face,  saluted 
them  with  dignity  and  addressed  them  with  candour.  Knowing 
that  he  had  been  elevated  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  his  country 
by  honest  means,  he  was  not  ashamed  to  exhibit  the  simple  dig 
nity  of  his  office.  Mr.  Jefferson  besides  being  extremely  Ungraceful 
in  his  personal  carriage,  was  conscious  of  having  risen  to  power  by 
unworthy  and  clandestine  courses,  by  inconsistencies,  misrepre 
sentations,  evasions,  and  calumnies,  and  must  naturally  have  pre 
ferred  addressing  the  representatives  of  the  nation  from  the  re 
cesses  of  his  Cabinet,  to  the  open  encounter  of  their  gaze  and 
scrutiny  in  the  delivery  of  official  orations.  Under  the  influence 
of  this  feeling  he  would  probably  have  left  the  rostrum,  with 
that  bashful  grace  and  retrospective  caution,  with  which  a  Vir 
ginia  attorney  first  alights  from  his  new  Philadelphia  coach ; 
or  in  other  words,  as  a  bear  descends  a  tree. 

This  spurious  modesty  had  no  doubt  an  influence  in  the  re 
trenchment  of  the  levees,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  announces  to  Mr. 
Macon,  (Vol.  3.  p.  470.)  as  among  the  great  measures  of  politi 
cal  reformation,  by  which  his  reign  was  to  be  distinguished. 
He  could  not  but  feel  the  disadvantage  of  placing  his  tall  but 
unmajestic  figure,  his  uneasy  manners  and  studied  affability,  in 
weekly  contrast  with  what  men  remembered  and  adored,  of  the 
warlike  form,  the  noble  deportment,  and  generous  modesty  of 

20 


154 

Washington,  in  avowed  opposition  to  whose  example  and  princi 
ples  he  had  come  into  office. 

His  pretensions  to  the  credit  of  economical  reform  in  the  ex 
penses  of  the  government,  though  confidently  urged,  are  not  well 
founded.  His  claim  on  this  head  consisted  mainly  in  disband 
ing  the  provisional  army  of  President  Adams,  in  reducing 
the  navy,  and  in  abolishing  the  offices  created  by  the  law  im 
posing  direct  taxes.  But  the  increase,  of  the  army  and  of  the 
navy,  as  well  as  the  direct  taxes,  were  the  just  and  necessary 
consequences  of  the  situation  in  which  our  commerce  and  cha 
racter  were  placed  by  the  outrages  of  the  French  Directory. 
When  Mr.  Jefferson  came  into  power  not  only  had-  that  atro 
cious  oligarchy  ceased  to  exist,  but  our  differences  with  France 
had  been  terminated  by  a  treaty  signed  the  30th  September, 
1800,  and  the  laws  providing  for  the  increase  of  the  military 
means  of  the  country  had  all  been  in  consequence  repealed. 
Notwithstanding  these  public  and  recorded  facts,  Mr.  Jefferson 
solemnly  claimed  (Vol.  4.  p.  434.)  not  only  credit  but  reward  for 
this  reduction  of  taxation  and  patronage,  as  if  they  had  really 
been  measures  of  relief  for  which  the  country  stood  indebted  to 
his  judgment  and  patriotism. 

So  complete  and  bewildering  was  the  fanaticism,  with  which 
he  succeeded  in  afflicting  the  intelligence  of  his  country,  that  the 
Assembly  of  Virginia,  in  their  address  upon  his  retirement  from 
the  office  of  President,  return  him  thanks  for  the  favour  he  con 
ferred  on  the  nation  by  these  measures,  (Vol.  4.  p.  438.)  and  to 
this  farcical  blunder  of  that  deliberative  body,  he  referred  in  ap 
plying  to  their  successors  for  privilege  to  sell  his  estate  by  lottery. 
The  Assembly  of  Virginia  at  the  same  time  thank  him  for  ex 
ploding  "  the  monarchic  maxim  that  a  national  debt  is  a  na 
tional  blessing,"  and  for  paying  off  in  the  eight  years  of  his  go 
vernment  thirty-three  millions  of  our  debt. 

As  to  the  first  part  of  this  double  benefaction,  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  estimate  it,  if  the  maxim  had  ever  been  adopted 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States.  When  the  system  of 
finance  suggested  by  Hamilton  was  under  discussion  in  Congress, 
one  of  the  objections  to  it,  was,  as  I  have  already  observed,  that 
it  would  create  an  enormous  and  unextinguishable  debt.  To 
this  it  was  answered  that  the  debt  already  existed,  and  that  the 
adoption  of  Hamilton's  plan,  would  not  involve  the  creation  of  a 
new  debt  but  would  be  paying  an  old  one — and  that  the  certifi 
cates  of  this  debt  which  the  government  would  be  required  to 
issue  to  the  public  creditors  would  become  a  circulating  medium, 
and  pro  tanto  would  supply  our  want  of  a  metallic  currency. 
Then,  to  parry  this  persuasive  argument,,  the  adversaries  of  the 


155 

measure,  charged  its  supporters  with  acting  on  the  corrupt  doc 
trine  that  a  public  debt  is  a  public  blessing.  To  this  unjust  re 
proach  and  shallow  sophistry,  Mr.  Jefferson  gave  countenance 
and  circulation,  and  by  so  doing  it  would  appear,  acquired,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  a  title  to  the  gratitude  and  ap 
plause  of  his  country  ! 

But  the  members  of  that  "deep  divan,"  were  so  intent  on 
thanksgiving,  that  they  did  not  perceive  the  hideous  incompati 
bility  existing  between  their  two  themes  of  adoration.  If  the 
debts  due  by  the  nation,  had  not,  in  opposition  to  the  opinions  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  been  honestly  assumed  and  effectively  funded  at  the 
instance  of  Hamilton  and  his  friends,  who  thereby  exposed  them 
selves  to  the  discredit  of  this  "  monarchic  maxim,"  Mr.  Jefferson 
never  could  have  had  the  glory  of  paying  off  the  thirty-three 
millions.  And  this  too,  as  it  was,  they  should  have  recollected, 
he  was  chiefly  enabled  to  do  by  the  salutary  effects  of  Jay's 
treaty,  a  measure,  which  the  lauded  President,  and  the  laudatory 
Assemblymen,  incessantly  decried. 

In  regard  to  his  reduction  of  the  diplomatic  establishment  of 
the  United  States  in  Europe  to  three  ministers,  which  is  vaunt- 
ingly  proclaimed  to  Mr.  Macon — it  is  true  that  the  mission  to 
Berlin,  which  the  elder  Adams  had  instituted  for  the  benefit  of 
his  son,  was  abolished  by  the  administration  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 
But  to  balance  this  instance  of  economy,  he  doubled  our  principal 
embassies  in  Europe,  successively — first  by  associating  Mr.  Mon 
roe  with  Mr.  Livingston  in  Prance,  then  with  Mr.  Pinckney  in 
Spain,  and  last  by  inflicting  similar  annoyance  on  Mr.  Monroe 
himself,  at  London,  in  the  person  of  Mr.  William  Pinckney,  as 
stated  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Monroe,  (Vol.  4.  p.  106.) 
"  You  consider  the  mission  of  Mr.  Pinckney  as  an  associate,  to 
have  been  in  some  way  injurious  to  you."  In  addition  he  nomi 
nated  Mr.  Short  on  a  special  mission  to  attend  the  imperial  inter 
view  at  Erfurth,  in  1808,  a  piece  of  meddlesome  extravagance 
which  was  beyond  the  endurance  even  of  a  subservient  Senate. 

This  complex  diplomatic  machinery  was  productive  of  no  ad 
vantage  to  the  foreign  relations  of  the  United  States,  which  were 
left  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  every  body  knows,  in  a  most  inflamed 
and  precarious  condition. 

But  if  the  merit  of  the  Louisiana  purchase  be  admitted  to 
overbalance  not  only  President  Jefferson's  minor  faults,  but  the 
fatal  empiricism  which  dictated  the  gunboat  system  and  the  in 
definite  embargo — this  destroying  our  commerce  and  revenue, — 
that  strangling  the  herculean  infancy  of  our  navy ;  the  invention 
of  the  nullifying  doctrine  to  which  he  asserts  an  incontestable 
elaim;  (V.  4.  p.  344.)  throws  in  a  weight  of  demerit  that  mtis 


160 

turn  the  scales  against  his  pretensions.  When  it  is  considered 
that  the  same  mind  gave  birth  to  these  prodigious  chimeras — 
that  the  monstrous  doctrine  of  nullification  and  the  horrible  po 
licy  of  the  embargo,  could  not  co-exist  without  inevitable  destruc 
tion  to  the  Union,  the  country  will  feel  disposed  to  be  thankful 
for  having  escaped  the  mischief  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  contrivances, 
rather  than  for  having  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  his  services. 

If  Gen.  Jackson  were  to  persuade  the  States  of  our  confederacy 
to  adopt  as  orthodox  the  nullifying  theory,  and  then  were  to  in 
duce  Congress  to  lay  an  indefinite  embargo,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  he  would  break  up  the  Union  in  less  than  sixteen  months. 
As  little  doubt  can  there  be  that  he  would  at  once  cancel  all  the 
claims  which  his  great  and  substantial  services  have  established 
to  the  gratitude  of  his  country,  and  that  he  would  prove  himself 
about  as  sincere  a  friend  to  the  constitution,  as  Guy  Faux  was  to 
the  English  parliament.  Yet  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  instead  of  over 
throwing  in  well-fought  fields  the  invaders  of  his  native  soil,  re 
tired  from  danger  faster  than  it  approached,  and  slunk  from  office 
at  the  very  time  when  "  the  post  of  honour  was  a  public  station," 
endeavoured  to  persuade  the  States  to  adopt  and  practise  this 
nullifying  doctrine,  and  induced  Congress  to  lay  an  indefinite 
embargo. 

In  order  to  countervail  his  admitted  errors,  and  to  enhance  his 
supposed  virtues  as  a  statesman,  the  admirers  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  extolling  his  pretensions  to  a  name  in 
literature  and  a  place  in  the  galaxy  of  science. 

As  a  scholar  it  is  but  too  obvious  from  his  writings  that  his 
merits  were  of  the  humblest  description.  His  diction  is  any  thing 
but  refined.  Redundant  of  words  and  foul  with  gallicisms,  neo 
logisms  and  vulgarisms,  it  is  neither  arrayed  in  the  splendour  of 
classical  wealth,  nor  inspired  by  the  natural  and  wanton  spirit  of 
English  ease  and  vigour.  His  misquotation  from  the  second 
Georgic, 

44  Flumina  amo  sylvasque  inglorius." 

is  pregnant  proof  that  he  had  never  comprehended  the  meaning, 
felt  the  spirit,  nor  enjoyed  the  harmony  of  that  exquisite  passage  ; 
and  that  he  was  acquainted  neither  with  the  character  which  Vir 
gil  has  left  of  himself,  nor  with  the  beauty  of  his  versification. 

If  with  this  anti-classical  evidence  be  coupled  his  assertion 
(V.  4.  p.  331.)  that  the  French  is  "  the  most  copious  and  elo 
quent  language  in  the  living  world" — a  case  of  complete  gothi- 
cism  will  be  made  out  against  this  pseudo  lover  of  letters.  A 
Frenchman  might  be  pardoned  for  preferring  his  own  language 


157 

to  ours,  as  a  kitten  may  be  supposed  to  prefer  cat's  milk  to  any 
other.  But  for  a  man  whose  infant  tongue  lisped  the  language 
of  Shakspeare  and  Milton  and  Barrow  and  Burke — a  privilege 
which  the  compatriots  of  Homer  and  Demosthenes  might  have 
envied  ;  to  declare  the  French  the  most  copious  and  eloquent  of 
living  languages,  argues  a  hopeless  degree  of  insensibility  to  the 
most  powerful  and  agitating  forms  of  human  eloquence.  On 
this  point  it  is  enough  to  look  at  Delille's  translation  of  Paradise 
Lost. 

In  regard  to  his  pretensions  on  the  score  of  science,  it  is  re 
markable  that  notwithstanding  his  avowed  predilection  and  even 
"  predestination"  for  philosophical  studies,  (V.  4.  p.  126.)  he  con 
tributed  nothing  to  the  stock  of  human  knowledge,  though  he 
flourished  in  a  most  inquisitive  and  luminous  age,  and  lived  in 
leisure  and  retirement  at  least  twenty  years. 

His  Notes  on  Virginia,  a  puerile  and  imperfect  work,  was 
considered  promising  for  a  beginner  in  philosophical  speculation ; 
but  except  as  a  slender  repository  of  traditional  facts,  is  now 
neither  valued  nor  known  by  men  of  science.  There  is  among 
his  letters  one,  (written  while  he  was  our  Minister  in  France) 
addressed  to  M.  Le  Roy  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences 
(V.  2.  p.  57.)  in  which  an  account  of  the  easterly  breezes  pre 
vailing  during  a  part  of  the  summer  in  lower  Virginia  is  given, 
and  a  very  formal  solution  of  the  phenomenon  is  attempted.  In 
the  statement  of  the  problem  it  is  evident  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
"  welcomes  fancies  for  facts,"  in  order  to  make  room  for  his  rea 
soning,  which,  though  intended  no  doubt  to  recommend  him  as 
a  member  of  the  academy,*  is  as  trite,  and  inconclusive,  as  any 
patchwork  of  philosophical  charlatanerie  that  ever  was  before  or 
since  contrived.  He  confounds  the  progress  of  settlement  and 
observation,  with  the  range  of  the  easterly  breezes — seeing  in  the 
fact  of  their  prevalence  being  noticed  farther  and  farther  from  the 
seacoast,  the  phantasm,  that  they  extended  farther  and  farther 
into  the  interior  country,  induced  by  the  sparse  and  limited  open 
ings  made  in  the  primeval  forests  by  our  early  settlers.  This  is 
his  language.  "  The  information  given  by  me  to  the  Marquis 
de  Chastellux,  was  that  the  sea  breezes  which  prevail  in  the 
lower  parts  of  Virginia,  during  the  summer  months,  and  in  the 
warm  parts  of  the  day,  had  made  a  sensible  progress  into  the  in 
terior  country  ;  that  formerly  and  within  the  memory  of  persons 

*  He  did  not  succeed  in  this  object  until  the  26th  of  December,  1801,  when 
he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  French  Academy  of  inscriptions  and  belles- 
lettres.  From  the  date  of  this  distinction,  "  I  see  this  useful  deduction" 
that  it  was  conferred,  not  on  the  philosopher  but  on  the  President. 


158 

living,  they  extended  little  above  Williamsburg,  that  afterwards 
they  became  sensible  as  high  as  Richmond,  and  that  at  present 
they  penetrate  sometimes  as  far  as  the  first  mountains,  which  are 
above  a  hundred  miles  farther  from  the  sea  coast  than  Williams- 
burg  is."  Now  this  instead  of  being  philosophy,  is  nothing  but 
the  more  vulgar  than  common  error  of  putting  the  cart  before 
the  horse.  Instead  of  the  breezes  following  the  population  from 
the  sea  coast  first  to  Williamsburg,  therrto  Richmond,  and  then 
to  "  the  first  mountains,"  the  population  followed  the  breezes  and 
found  them  prevailing  with  various  degrees  of  steadiness  and 
force,  at  these  successive  distances  from  the  ocean.  The  breeze 
which  refreshed  the  hardy  woodsman  had  waved  the  high 
branches  of  the  oak  which  he  felled  to  the  ground. 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  undertakes  to  show  from  the  effect  of  heat 
on  the  temperature  of  the  earth's  surface  and  the  air  resting  on  it, 
as  compared  with  its  effects  on  the  ocean  and  its  superincumbent 
air — that  the  summer  sea  breezes  which  prevail  in  lower  Virginia, 
had,  before  the  country  was  settled  by  our  ancestors,  visited  only 
the  sea  coast,  and  had  since  gradually  extended  into  the  interior 
of  the  country,  in  consequence  of  the  increased  cultivation  and 
exposure  to  the  sun  of  the  earth's  surface.  How  any  man  could 
adopt  this  hypothesis,  as  early  as  1786,  you  will  doubtless  think 
a  problem  much  more  difficult  of  solution  than  the  extensive  pre 
valence  of  these  sea  breezes,  when  you  recollect  that  even  now 
at  least  three-fourths  of  the  surface  of  lower  Virginia,  though  in- 
terspersedly  settled,  is  covered  with  forests.  Forty-five  years 
ago  the  proportion  of  cleared  land  must  have  been  much  smaller  ; 
and  even  if  we  could  admit  Mr.  Jefferson's  ratiocination  as  to  the 
action  of  the  sun's  rays  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  on  the  earth 
when  cleared,  and  when  covered  with  forests,  it  would  be  impos 
sible  to  conceive  that  the  sparse  and  inconsiderable  settlements 
which  existed  between  Richmond  and  "  the  first  mountains"  in 
the  year  1786  could  have  had  any  sensible  effect  on  the  force  or 
direction  of  the  winds. 

Mr.  Jefferson  seems  not  to  have  considered,  that  if,  according 
to  his  theory,  this  new  impulse  and  extensive  range  were  given 
to  the  sea  breeze,  a  corresponding  increase  of  force  and  extension 
must  have  occurred  in  the  land  breeze,  and  would  have  been  ob 
served  by  mariners  along  our  coast.  No  such  thing  however  is 
believed  to  have  happened,  or  is  pretended  by  him  to  have  taken 
place.  You  have  no  doubt  observed  that  this  easterly  breeze 
prevailing  from  about  the  last  of  June,  until  the  middle  of  August 
in  Virginia,  by  day,  is  always,  succeeded  at  night  by  a  gentle  air 
from  the  south-west.  This,  which  is  known  to  be  the  effect  of 


159 

the  altered  state  of  comparative  temperature  in  the  surfaces  of  the 
earth  and  of  the  ocean,  the  operation  of  the  same  causes,  being 
reversed,  would,  in  restoring  the  equilibrium  of  the  atmosphere,  be 
increased  in  force,  and  extent  of  prevalence  exactly  in  proportion 
to  the  augmented  intensity  of  the  sea  breeze  ;  as  the  lengthened 
vibration  of  a  pendulum  on  one  side  of  the  perpendicular,  extends 
the  range  of  its  motion  on  the  other. 

Throughout  his  dissertation  he  appears  to  treat  light  and  heat 
as  identical ;  but  to  compensate  for  this  error,  he  discovers  that 
the  heaviest  air  resides  in  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere  ! 
"  These  mountains  constitute  the  highest  lands  in  the  United 
States  ;  the  air  on  them  must  consequently  be  very  cold  and 
heavy,  and  have  a  tendency  to  flow  both  to  the  east  and  west." 
(P.  60.)  Without  insisting  on  the  old  Newtonian  notion  of 
gravity,  it  may  be  considered  strange  that  with  this  tendency  to 
move,  the  heavy  air  should  remain  stationary,  particularly  as  it 
is  never  found  in  elevated  situations  by  travellers,  who  in  climb 
ing  up  high  mountains  invariably  complain  of  the  irrespirable 
lightness  of  the  atmosphere  on  their  summits.  Such  tangled 
philosophical  gossamer  as  this,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  likely  to 
confer  any  thing  but  glory  on  a  nation,  which  had  produced,  and 
had  just  been  represented  in  Paris  by,  FRANKLIN. 

If  we  follow  our  philosopher  from  the  physical  to  the  moral 
world,  we  shall  find  that  as  his  speculations  on  matter  are  fantas 
tical,  so  his  creed  as  to  mind  is  material,  and  that  his  doctrines 
are  as  ridiculous  as  his  practice  was  deterring.  His  ungenerous 
conduct  towards  Hamilton,  his  deceit  and  ingratitude  towards 
Gen.  Washington,  confessed  to  Mr.  Madison,  in  explaining  the 
letter  to  Mazzei.  have  been  already  touched  upon.  The  duplicity 
of  his  professions  to  Col.  Burr,  his  ferocious  persecution  of  that 
individual — his  repeated  and  deliberate  inconsistencies  as  to 
matters  of  fact,  will  recur  to  your  memory,  without  being  re 
capitulated,  and  cannot  fail  to  convince  you  that  in  respect  of  the 
practice  of  virtue  and  the  cultivation  of  science,  his  claims  to 
admiration  were  equally  factitious. 

His  ethical  doctrines  which  are  found  chiefly  in  his  correspon 
dence  with  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Short,  and  Dr.  Rush,  in  the  4th 
Volumeof  his"  Writings,"are  surprisingly  inept  and  presumptuous. 
To  Mr.  Adams  he  exclaims,  (p.  272.)  "  I  have  often  wondered 
for  what  good  end  the  sensations  of  grief  could  be  intended.  All 
our  other  passions  within  proper  bounds,  have  an  useful  object." 
And  he  adds — "  I  wish  the  pathologists  then  would  tell  us  what 
is  the  use  of  grief  in  the  economy,  and  of  what  good  it  is  the 
cause,  proximate  or  remote."  Now  whatever  pathologists 


•  t  .  160 

might  say,  moralists  would  readily  have  explained  to  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  the  chastening  power  of  grief  over  the  other  passions.  How 
it  rebukes  avarice,  mitigates  anger,  disarms  envy,  moderates 
ambition,  and  sanctifies  love.  How  it  raises  the  mind  from 
earthly  to  heavenly  things ;  from  subjects  of  temporary  interest, 
to  objects  of  eternal  hope. 

"  Sweet  are  the  uses  of  adversity  i 
Which,  like  the  toad,  ugly  and  venomous, 
Wears  yet  a  precious  jewel  in  its  head." 

In  truth,  the  Swan  of  Avon,  was  a  better  philosopher  than  the 
Sage  of  Monticello. 

He  assures  Mr.  Short,  (p.  321.)  that  St.  Paul  was  an  impostor, 
and  (p.  325.)  ridicules  "  the  whimsies  of  Plato's  foggy  brain," 
because,  as  it  would  seem,  the  knowledge  of  the  animal  economy, 
possessed  by  that  ancient  philosopher,  was  inferior  to  that  display 
ed  near  two  thousand  years  after  his  time,  by  Mrs.  Bryan,  in  her 
"  Conversations  on  Chemistry."  It  is  not  worth  while  to  refer 
you  to  his  puerile  and  shallow  speculations,  in  support  of  mate 
rialism  ;  which,  though  he  appears  to  have  rummaged  the 
Dictionary  of  Bayle  manfully,  are  remarkable  for  nothing  so 
much  as  a  want  of  that  learning,  ingenuity,  and  speciousness,  by 
which  such  sophisms  are  usually  sought  to  be  recommended. 
He  holds,  (Vol.  4.  pp.  332,  333.)  that  the  soul  of  man,  and  even 
that  God  himself  is  matter  or  nothing.  That  is, — to  lose  sight  of 
feeling  and  revelation,  and  to  wander  with  him  into  metaphysics,— 
that  not  only  are  sorrow  and  hope  material  affections,  but  that 
the  first  cause  of  all  matter,  is  matter  itself;  or  that  creation  had 
no  creator,  the  universe  of  effects,  no  cause. 

But  returning  from  his  jejune  and  vapid  scepticisms,  to  the 
estimate  of  his  public  character,  it  may  be  reasonably  assumed, 
that  his  merits  as  a  philosopher  in  letters,  physics,  ethics,  or 
theology,  are  not  of  a  description  to  ennoble  his  qualities,  or 
canonize  his  defects,  as  a  statesman.  And  we  may  firmly  arid 
safely  rest  on  this  conclusion,  that  when  the  people  of  the  United 
States  shall  take  an  unimpassioned  view  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  char 
acter  as  a  public  servant,  making  a  liberal  allowance  of  praise  for 
the  good  of  which  he  was  the  author,  and  extenuating  as  far  as 
the  most  indulgent  justice  will  allow,  the  impurity  of  his  motives, 
the  insincerity  of  his  sentiments,  the  mischief  of  his  opinions,  and 
the  errors  of  his  conduct,  they  will  be  compelled  to  admit,  that  if 
the  country  stands  indebted  to  him  at  all,  on  the  general  account, 
the  balance  in  his  favour  is  very  small  indeed. 


161 


LETTER  XII. 

IN  entering  upon  the  second  division  of  Gen.  Lee's  public  life, 
it  is  natural  to  reflect  on  the  opposite  influence  of  the  peace,  as  it 
modified  his  destiny,  and  affected  the  career  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 
Had  the  war  been  persevered  in  but  a  little  longer,  there  is  ample 
reason  to  believe  that  in  consequence  of  the  conspicuous  services 
of  Gen.  Lee,  known  to  the  army,  felt  by  the  nation,  and  testified 
by  Gen.  Greene  in  his  letter  to  the  President  of  Cgngress,  he 
would  soon  have  been  promoted  to  the  command  of  one  of  our 
principal  armies,  and  would  have  stood  forth  in  rank  and  posi 
tion  as  he  was  in  reality  and  effect,  inferior  only  to  Washington 
and  Greene,  in  patriotic  service  and  military  glory. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  fair  to  presume,  that  but  for  the  return 
of  peace,  the  pacific  qualities  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  exhibited 
in  the  midst  of  war  and  invasion,  could  never  have  engaged  the 
confidence  of  his  country,  or  roused  him  from  that  bed  of  rest  to 
which  he  protests  he  was  driven,  neither  by  the  audacity  of  Ar 
nold,  nor  the  fame  nor  force  of  Cornwallis ;  nor  by  the  fear  of 
wounds  or  of  death  or  of  impeachment ;  but  by  a  sudden  diffi 
dence  in  the  merits  of  his  early  education,  and  the  intolerable 
fatigue  of  two  years  of  official  life  ! 


Captique  dolis  lachrymisque  coacti, 


"  Quos  neque  Tydydes,  nee  Larissaeus  Achilles, 
u  Non  anni  dornuere  rfecem,  non  mille  carinoe. 

Peace,  however,  fortunately  for  the  country,  was  the  speedy  con 
sequence  of  those  exertions,  which  more  than  compensating  for 
the  retirement  of  Governor  Jefferson,  rescued  the  three  Southern 
States  from  British  domination,  and  compelled  Cornwallis  to  sur 
render  at  York.  Military  virtues  being  no  longer  demanded, 
and  the  arts  of  policy  prevailing  in  public  estimation  over  fame 
in  arms,  Mr.  Jefferson,  recovered  as  suddenly  from  the  oppression 
of  diffidence  and  lassitude,  as  he  had  unexpectedly  sunk  under 
them,  returned  to  public  life,  and  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  cle 
mency  and  connivance  of  the  Virginia  Legislature,  as  well  as  by 
the  kindness  and  confidence  of  Gen.  Washington,  regained  in 
process  of  time  public  favour. 

To  the  effect  of  this  state  of  things  may  be  added,  in  account 
ing  for  the  comparative  inactivity  of  this  part  of  Gen.  Lee's  career, 
the  facts,  that  he  appears  to  have  had  but  slight  ambition  for  any 
other  than  military  employments,  and  that  he  was  at  an  early 
period  embraced  in  that  popular  disfavour,  by  which,  in  conse- 

/VX 


162 

• 

,»  , 

quence  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  machinations,  all  Gen.  Washington's 
prominent  supporters  in  Virginia  were  visited. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution;  we  find  him,  however, 
a  member  of  the  Virginia  delegation  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States;*  in  which  situation  he  devoted  himself  to  forwarding 
those  measures  that  prepared  the  way  for  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution.  He  was  also  among  those  of  Gen.  Washington's 
friends  who  most  earnestly  persuaded  him  to  undertake  the  all- 
important  duties  of  the  first  presidency  ;t  and  happening  to  be  in 
the  vicinity  of  Mount  Vernon  when  Washington  was  about  to 
fill  for  the  first  time  the  office  of  President,  on  the  impulse  of  the 
moment,  he  prepared  the  address  which  was  presented  to  that 
illustrious  man  by  his  neighbours,  and  wTas  so  well  adapted  to  the 
occasion  as  to  be  thought  by  Marshall  worthy  of  being  transferred 
to  the  pages  of  his  history.*  "  The  sentiments  of  veneration  and 
affection  which  were  felt  by  all  classes  of  his  fellow-citizens  for 
their  patriot  chief,  were  manifested  by  the  most  flattering  marks 
of  heartfelt  respect ;  and  by  addresses  which  evinced  the  unlimit 
ed  confidence  reposed  in  his  virtues  and  talents.  Although  a 
place  cannot  be  given  to  these  addresses  generally,  yet  that  from 
the  citizens  of  Alexandria  derives  such  pretensions  to  particular 
notice  from  the  recollection  that  it  is  to  be  considered  as  an  effu 
sion  from  the  hearts  of  his  neighbours  and  private  friends,  that 
its  insertion  may  be  pardoned.  It  is  in  the  following  words. 

"  Again  your  country  commands  your  care.  Obedient  to  its 
wishes,  unmindful  of  your  ease,  we  see  you  again  relinquishing 
the  bliss  of  retirement ;  and  this  too  at  a  period  of  life,  when  na 
ture  itself  seems  to  authorize  a  preference  of  repose  ! 

"  Not  to  extol  your  glory  as  a  soldier  ;  not  to  pour  forth  our 
gratitude  for  past  services  ;  not  to  acknowledge  the  justice  of  the 
unexampled  honour  which  has  been  conferred  upon  you  by  the 
spontaneous  and  unanimous  suffrages  of  three  millions  of  free 
men,  in  your  election  to  the  supreme  magistracy ;  nor  to  admire 
the  patriotism  which  directs  your  conduct,  do  your  neighbours 
and  friends  now  address  you.  Themes  less  splendid  but  more 
endearing,  impress  our  minds.  The  first  and  best  of  citizens 
must  leave  us  :  our  aged  must  lose  their  ornament ;  our  youth 
their  model ;  our  agriculture  its  improver  ;  our  'commerce  its 
friend  ;  our  infant  academy  its  protector  ;  our  poor  their  benefac 
tor  ;  and  the  interior  navigation  of  the  Potomac  (an  event  re 
plete  with  the  most  extensive  utility,  akeady,  by  your  unremitted 
exertions,  brought  into  partial  -use,)  its  institutor  and  promoter. 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  6.  p.  136.  t  Ibid.  J  Ibid.  Vol.  5.  pp.  155-6. 


163 

"  Farewell  ! — go  !  and  make  a  grateful  people  happy,  a  people, 
who  will  be  doubly  grateful  when  they  contemplate  this  recent 
sacrifice  for  their  interest. 

"  To  that  Being  who  maketh  and  unmaketh  at  his  will,  we 
commend  you  ;  and  after  the  accomplishment  of  the  arduous  busi 
ness  to  which  you  are  called,  may  he  restore  to  us  again,  the  best 
of  men,  and  the  most  beloved  fellow-citizen  !"  As  a  member  of 
the  Convention  of  Virginia  which  ratified  the  federal  constitution, 
he  was  distinguished  for  zeal  and  eloquence  in  favour  of  that 
measure.*  As  Governor  of  Virginia  he  served  the  full  term  of 
three  years,  and  besides  executing  the  ordinary  duties  of  his  office, 
commanded  the  army  sent  against  the  western  insurgents  ;  whose 
dangerous  outrages,  though  countenanced  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
nourished  by  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  at  least  one  of  his 
leading  friends,  Gen.  Lee  repressed  completely  and  without  blood 
shed. 

Subsequently  to  this,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  As 
sembly,  and  in  the  debates  on  the  famous  resolutions  of  Mr. 
Madison,  took  a  leading  and  conspicuous  part.  Afterwards  in 
compliance  with  the  wishes  of  Gen.  Washington,  he  became 
again  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and  though  contending  with  the 
tide  of  opposition  which  was  then  setting  against  the  federalists, 
carried  his  election.  While  a  member  of  that  Congress  he  pre 
pared  those  resolutions  on  the  death  of  Gen.  Washington  which 
seem  destined  to  endless  association  with  the  fame  of  the  hero 
they  commemorate  ;  and  as  the  chosen  organ  of  a  nation's  grief  t 
delivered  a  funeral  oration  before  the  two  houses  of  Congress, 
which  was  admired  for  nervous  brevity  of  language,  and  for  deep 
and  pathetic  energy  of  feeling. 

To  the  various  other  testimonies  of  respect  and  veneration  by 
which  the  representatives  of  the  people  endeavoured  to  do  honour 
to  his  departed  friend,  Gen.  Lee  most  anxiously  contributed,  both 
in  his  public  and  in  his  private  character,  as  may  be  seen  by  the 

*  Robertson's  Reports  of  the  Debates  in  the  Virginia  Convention. 

t  In  the  report  of  the  joint  committee  which  was  appointed  by  Congress, 
"  to  devise  the  mode  by  which  the  nation  should  express  its  feelings  on  this 
melancholy  occasion,"  and  whose  report  was  adopted  ;  it  was  resolved, 
4<  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  be  desired  to  request  one  of  the  members  of  Congress  to  deliver  a 
funeral  oration."  Mr.  Jefferson  was  then  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States  and  President  of  the  Senate.  So  that  for  paying  this  last  and  most 
solemn  honour  to  the  memory  of  Washington,  he  concurred  in  the  choice 
of  a  man  whom  he  had  represented  to  Washington  himself  as  every  way 
vile  and  contemptible.  This  is  sufficient  to  shew  the  insincerity  of  his  sorrow 
for  Gen.  Washington's  death,  or  of  his  abhorrence  for  Gen.  Lee's  character. 


164 

following  letters!  addressed  to  him  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Washington, 
arid  written  about  the  time  Mr.  Jefferson  was  congratulating 
himself  and  his  friends  on  the  disappearance  of  "  the  Washing 
ton  popularity." 

"  Mount  Vernon,  Jan.  16th,  1800. 

"  Dear  Sir — I  had  the  honour,  last  evening,  to  receive  your 
favour  of  the  8th  inst.  enclosing  the  oration,  which  was  presented 
to  Mrs.  Washington.  She  requests  me  to  assure  you  of  the 
grateful  sensibility  with  which  she  receives  this  tribute  of  respect 
ful  and  affectionate  regard  paid  to  the  memory  of  her  dear  de 
parted  husband  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  permit  me  to  say,  my 
dear  sir,  that  the  assurance  you  give,  that,  whenever  it  shall 
please  heaven  to  take  her  from  among  us,  her  remains  will  be 
placed  in  the  same  tomb  with  his  whom  she  held  most  dear, 
fulfils  the  first  wish  of  her  heart. 

"  With  best  wishes  for  your  health  and  happiness,  I  am,  &c. 
"  GEN.  LEE.  "  TOBIAS  LEAR." 

"  Mount  Vernon,  April  2Sd,  1800. 

"  Dear  Sir — At  the  request  of  Mrs.  Washington,  I  have  the 
honour  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  to  her  of  the 
10th  instant,  and  to  convey  her  best  thanks  for  your  friendly 
attention  in  communicating  the  unanimous  assent  of  Congress 
for  extending  to  her  the  right  of  franking.  This  evidence  of 
personal  attention,  from  the  representatives  of  our  nation;  has 
impressed  her  mind  with  grateful  sensibility. 

11  For  the  repeated  assurances  of  your  disposition  to  contribute 
by  every  means  in  your  power,  to  her  happiness  or  convenience, 
Mrs.  Washington  begs  you  to  accept  her  sincere  thanks,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  receive  her  prayers  for  your  health  and  hap 
piness,  in  which  most  cordially  unites,  dear  sir, 

"  Your  respectful  and  obedient  servant, 

"  GEN.  LEE.  «  TOBIAS  LEAR." 

You  are  probably  not  altogether  unacquainted  with  the  history 
of  the  business  whicli  these  letters  bring  into  view.  One  of  the 
proceedings  of  Congress  was  to  obtain  the  consent  of  Mrs.  Wash 
ington  to  place  the  remains  of  her  husband  at  the  disposal  of  the 
government,  but  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  friends  gaining  the  as 
cendency  and  coming  into  power,  the  obligation  of  honour  which 

*  In  MS. 


165 

had  thus  been  added  to  the  debt  of  gratitude,  was  shamefully 
evaded,  and  left  unfulfilled.  The  remains  of  Gen.  Washington, 
as  well  as  those  of  his  amiable,  beloved  and  affectionate  wife,  re 
main  where  they  were  first  placed,  in  the  turf-covered  vault  of 
Mount  Vernon. 

Among  the  resolutions  UNANIMOUSLY  adopted  by  both  houses 
of  Congress  were  the  two  following  : — 

"  That  a  marble  monument  be  erected  by  the  United  States 
at  the  City  of  Washington  and  that  the  family  of  Gen.  Wash 
ington  be  requested  to  permit  his  body  to  be  deposited  under  it, 
and  that  the  monument  be  so  designed  as  to  commemorate  the 
great  events  of  his  military  and  political  life." 

"  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to 
direct  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  to  be  transmitted  to  Mrs.  Wash 
ington,  assuring  her  of  the  profound  respect  Congress  will  ever 
bear  to  her  person  and  character,  of  their  condolence  on  the  late 
affecting  dispensation  of  Providence,  and  intreating  her  assent  to 
the  interment  of  the  remains  of  Gen.  Washington,  in  the  manner 
expressed  in  the  first  resolution." 

Marshall  relates  the  abortion  of  these  sorrowful  and  solemn 
proceedings  in  a  passage  which,  as  far  as  I  know,  has  never 
been  contradicted  nor  even  commented  on,  by  Mr.  Jefferson  or 
his  friends. 

"  To  the  letter  of  the  President,  which  transmitted  to  Mrs. 
Washington  the  resolutions  of  Congress,  and  of  which  his  Secreta 
ry  was  the  bearer,  that  lady  answered,  "  taught  by  the  great 
example  which  I  have  so  long  had  before  me,  never  to  oppose  my 
private  wishes  to  the  public  will,  I  must  consent  to  the  request 
made  by  Congress,  which  you  have  had  the  goodness  to  transmit 
to  me  ;  and  in  doing  this,  1  need  not,  I  cannot  say  what  a  sacri 
fice  of  individual  feeling  I  make  to  a  sense  of  public  duty.'5  The 
monument  however  has  not  been  erected.  That  the  great  events 
of  the  political  as  well  as  military  life  of  Gen.  Washington, 
should  be  commemorated,  could  not  be  pleasing  to  those  who  had 
condemned,  and  continued  to  condemn  the  whole  course  of  his 
administration.  This  resolution,  therefore,  though  it  passed 
unanimously,  had  many  enemies.  That  party  which  had  long 
constituted  the  opposition,  and  which,  though  the  minority  for  the 
moment,  nearly  divided  the  House  of  Representatives,  declared 
its  preference  for  the  equestrian  statue  which  had  been  voted  by 
Congress  at  the  close  of  the  war.  This  was  taking  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  hint,  (Vol.  3.  pp.  373,  to  377.)  that  respect  might  be  mani 
fested  for  the  General,  but  by  no  means  for  the  President.  The 
division  between  a  statue  and  a  monument,  was  so  nearly  equal 


166 

that  the  session  passed  away  without  an  appropriation  for  either. 
The  public  feeling  soon  subsided,  and  those  who  possessed  the 
ascendancy  over  the  public  sentiment,  employed  their  influence 
to  draw  odium  on  the  men  who  favoured  a  monument ;  to 
represent  that  measure  as  a  part  of  a  general  system  to  waste  the 
public  money ;  and  to  impress  the  idea  that  the  only  proper 
monument  to  the  memory  of  a  meritorious  citizen,  was  that 
which  the  people  would  erect  in  their  affections.* 

Upon  this  subject  it  is  painful  to  dwell.  Let  us  hope  that  our 
country  will  yet  recover  from  these  delusions,  and  will  perform 
with  sincerity  and  good  taste,  a  duty,  the  neglect  of  which  is  a 
continual  shock  to  the  noblest  feelings  of  our  nature,  a  stain  upon 
the  character  of  the  nation,  and  an  outrage  on  the  general  senti 
ments  of  mankind. 

The  summary  I  have  given  you,  of  Gen.  Lee's  political  life,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  furnishes  evidence  of  virtue,  ability,  and  patriotism, 
unalloyed  by  selfish,  or  sinister  designs.  The  abatements  to 
which  they  may  be  thought  obnoxious,  are  those  simply  of  honest 
error  of  opinion,  without  the  "slightest  taint  of  corruption.  I 
allude  to  his  support  of  the  alien  and  sedition  laws,  in  the 
Virginia  assembly,  and  to  his  vote  for  Burr,  instead  of  Jefferson, 
as  President. 

As  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  a  nation,  when  engaged  in  hostili 
ties  or  preparing  for  war,  has  a  right  to  expel  from  its  territory, 
alien  enemies,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  only  charge  against 
Gen.  Lee  on  this  head,  arises  out  of  the  alleged  unconstitution 
ally  of  the  particular  law  in  question.  This  principle  was  en 
forced,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  a  large  portion  of  the  public, 
established  by  the  ingenious  logic  of  Mr.  Madison's  famous  report. 
But  Gen.  Lee  was  one  among  many,  whom  it  failed  to  convince. 

With  regard  to  the  sedition  law,  inasmuch  as  it  expressly 
secured  to  persons  arraigned  under  its  provisions,  the  right  of 
justifying  themselves  by  proving  the  truth  of  their  allegations, 
there  was  neither  tyranny  nor  injustice  in  its  spirit.  Its  remote 
consequences,  tending  to  restrain  the  liberty  of  the  press,  rendered 
it  inexpedient  in  point  of  policy ;  and  Mr.  Madison  demonstrated 
by  a  chain  of  fine  and  admirable  reasoning,  that  it  ihvolved  the 
exercise  of  a  power  which  was  not  fairly  deducible  from  the  Con 
stitution.  Gen.  Lee  took  a  different  view  of  the  subject,  and  sup 
ported  it,  I  have  understood,  in  a  strain  of  captivating  eloquence, 
by  clear  and  forcible  arguments.  His  opinions,  though  rejected 
by  a  majority  of  the  assembly  to  which  they  were  submitted,  and 

*  Vol.  5.  pp.  771,  772. 


107 

since  discountenanced  by  a  majority  of  the  people,  had  the  con 
currence  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  of  the  federal 
judiciary,  and  of  the  Legislatures  of  several  of  the  States.  It 
should  also  be  taken  into  consideration,  that  in  consequence  of  the 
excesses  to  which  the  Democratic  Societies,  and  other  partisans  of 
France,  had  carried  their  proceed  ings,  and  the  formidable  example 
of  their  effect  in  exciting  the  Western  insurrection,  the  Govern 
ment  was  placed  under  a  sort  of  necessity  of  guarding  strictly 
against  similar  atrocities  at  the  time  these  laws  were  passed : 
when,  owing  to  the  enmity  and  insolence  of  the  French  Direc 
tory,  and  the  strength  of  the  French  party  in  the  United  States, 
a  defensive  war  with  France  was  looked  upon  as  certain,  and  a 
want  of  concert  at  home  in  maintaining  it,  was  apprehended. 

With  respect  to  Gen.  Lee's  voting  for  Burr,  there  are  several 
grounds  of  extenuation,  if  not  of  complete  justification.  At  that 
time  the  responsibility  of  the  Representative  to  his  constituency 
was  not  so  generally  admitted,  or  so  strictly  enforced,  as  it  is  at 
present.  The  theory  of  Burke,  so  eloquently  propounded  to  his 
Bristol  electors,  was  the  text  of  our  most  enlightened  politicians, 
and  was  thought  particularly  applicable  to  the  question  then  before 
the  House  of  Representatives.  To  this  consideration  is  to  be  added, 
the  moral  repugnance  which  Gen.  Lee's  knowledge  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  practices  must  have  created.  Could  he  as  a  good  citizen, 
or  a  faithful  representative,  assist  in  placing  at  the  head  of  the 
nation,  an  individual  whom  he  firmly  believed  to  be  untrue  in 
his  private,  and  unprincipled  in  his  public  character  ?  However 
this  question  may  be  answered,  it  can  impugn  neither  the  per 
sonal  nor  the  political  honour  of  Gen.  Lee. 

Upon  the  whole  comparison  therefore,,  between  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  Gen.  Lee  as  public  servants,  upon  a  scale  of  what  may  be 
termed  clear  and  resulting  merit,  graduated  by  reference  to 
acknowledged  facts  and  obvious  justice,  the  least  that  can  be 
admitted  is,  that  Gen.  Lee,  although  his  career  was  limited,  and 
his  opportunities  circumscribed,  was  (not  to  speak  of  the  purity 
and  elevation  of  his  motives,)  in  regard  to  the  effects  of  his  con 
duct,  a  more  useful  citizen  than  Mr.  Jefferson.  This  result  will 
appear  not  less  striking  than  true,  when  it  is  remembered,  that 
Mr.  Jefferson,  who  has  been  already  traced  through  every  variety 
of  contradiction  in  principle,  every  shade  of  confusion  as  to 
example,  and  every  degree  of  misrepresentation  of  character,  and 
mis-statement  of  fact,  closed  the  series  of  slanders  which  gave 
occasion  to  these  remarks,  by  affirming,  that  Gen.  Lee,  "  ought 
indeed  to  have  been  of  more  truth,  or  less  trusted  bv  his  country.?1 


168 

If  we  follow  these  men  into  retirement  and  see  how  they 
respectively  employed  the  freedom  of  leisure,  or  supported  the 
pressure  of  misfortune,  there  will  be  found  something  to  blame 
and  to  praise  in  both.  Gen.  Lee  entered  into  a  course  of  san 
guine  and  visionary  speculations,  endeavouring  to  acquire  wealth, 
riot  by  rational  and  productive  industry,  but  by  a  combination  of 
bargains  which  could  scarcely  benefit  one  party  without  injury 
to  the  other,  and  which  were  often  mutually  detrimental. 

To  the  task  of  extending  and  diversifying  these  transactions 
so  as  to  make  the  success  of  one  compensate  if  possible  for  the 
failure  of  other?,  he  devoted  no  little  amount  of  misapplied 
talent  and  activity ;  as  in  bearing  up  against  the  weight  of  dis 
tress  and  ruin  which  they  finally  entailed,  he  wasted  a  degree  of 
fortitude  which,  however  inglorious  the  struggle,  could  not  be 
witnessed  without  admiration. 

The  retirement  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  his  writings  show,  was 
chiefly  devoted  to  fabricating  and  diffusing  calumnies  against  the 
greatest  benefactors  of  his  country,  and  in  endeavouring  to  create 
and  confirm  a  meretricious  estimate  of  his  own  merit  and  fame. 
In  this  occupation,  pursuing  ignoble  purposes  by  unworthy 
means,  he  succeeded  in  planting  the  generous  soil  of  the  public 
mind  with  delusions  rank  and  noxious,  which  could  hardly  ever 
have  been  eradicated  but  for  the  fortunate  publication  of  his 
"Writings."  This  has  admitted  the  public  into  the  secrets  of  his 
perpetual  motion,  and  exposed  the  masks  and  trickery  by  which 
their  admiration  was  suborned  and  their  judgment  imposed 
upon.  The  most  surprising  scenes  in  the  solemn  and  protracted 
farce  are  those  in  which  the  dupery  practised  on  old  Mr.  Adams, 
is  exhibited.  He  appears  on  the  philosophic  theatre  of  Monti- 
cello  as  Mr.  Jefferson's  Justice  Shallow,  and  consents  for  a  little 
flattering  cajollery  about  their  early  association  and  exploits  ;  for 
the  crumbs  of  praise  left  after  Mr.  Jefferson's  banquet ;  to  enter 
into  a  coalition*  against  the  fame  of  his  former  friends,  not  ex 
cepting  his  great  predecessor;  (Vol.  4.  p.  357.)  sacrificing  his 
own  opinions  and  affections  on  the  altar  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  vanity, 
for  the  poor  reward  of  being  allowed  to  snuff  the  impurity  of 
this  unhallowed  incense.  To  the  honour  of  Mrs.  Adams,  it  is 
to  be  observed  that  her  heart  was  too  good  and  her  judgment 
too  penetrating,  to  be  ensnared  by  the  blandishments,  of  which 
her  husband  in  his  old  age.  was  the  venerable  but  imrespected 
victim.  (Vol.  4.  p.  158.) 

*  An  hereditary  habit  it  would  appear  of  the  House  of  Braiatree. 


169 

As  a  noble  counterpoise  to  these  mal-practices,  Mr.  Jefferson 
is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having  created  by  an  honourable  zeal 
for  learning,  the  University  of  Virginia  ;  of  having  patronised  it 
against  much  discouragement,  and  brought  it  into  successful  ope 
ration  by  his  own  enthusiasm  and  perseverance.  This  is  a  monu 
ment  to  his  fame  as  a  citizen,  of  fair  proportion  and  of  solid  struc 
ture,  which  as  it  is  likely  to  counteract  their  effects,  not  even  his 
demerits  as  a  statesman  and  a  man,  will  suffice  to  undermine. 

But  if  in  the  hours  of  leisure,  Mr.  Jefferson  be  admitted  to 
have  stood  above  Gen.  Lee,  in  the  season  of  adversity  we  shall 
find  that  he  sunk  far  below  him.  They  both  died  after  being 
in  circumstances  of  insolvency.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  allowed  to 
retain  and  enjoy  his  property,  was  left  in  possession  of  his  per 
sonal  liberty  and  habitual  comforts.  Thus  indulged,  he  busied 
his  old  age  in  humiliating  efforts  to  excite  public  sympathy  and 
to  sell  his  estate  for  more  than  its  value  by  offering  temptations 
to  the  compassion  rather  than  to  the  interest  of  his  fellow-citi 
zens,  in  the  shape  of  a  lottery.  His  claim  to  this  gambling  and 
invidious  privilege,  which  if  granted  to  him  could  not  justly  have 
been  refused  to  others,  he  appears  to  have  supported  by  an  array 
of  his  public  services,  which  if  not  mercenary  was  certainly  not 
modest.  (Vol.  4.  pp.  434,  5,  6,  7,  8  and  9.) 

Gen.  Lee  was  cast  into  a  loathsome  jail,  and  subjected  to  the 
combined  persecution  of  political  rancour,  personal  cupidity,  and 
vulgar  malice.     Yet  he  never  for  a  moment  lost  the  dignity  of 
his  deportment,  or  the  composure  of  his  mind,  never  once  de 
scended  to  complaint  or  stooped  to  importunity — to  the  chicanery 
of  angling  for  lotteries,  or  to  the  littleness  of  attempting  to  retrieve 
his  private  fortune  by  an  array  of  his  public  services.     The  pain 
of  imprisonment  he  generously  soothed  by  celebrating  the  exploits 
of  his  great  commanders,  Washington  and  Greene  ;  by  saving 
from  oblivion  the  names  and  actions  of  his  companions  in  arms, 
and  by  recording  for  the  instruction  of  future  ages,  the  principal 
events  of  his  own  life.     While  he  dwelt  on  these  grateful  and 
heroic  themes,  which  smoothed  the  brow  of  misfortune,  not  an 
unfair  opinion  or  ungenerous  sentiment  escaped  him.     His  book 
is  stained  with  no  prevario&tions  or  calumnies,  no  evasions  or  con 
tradictions — no  slanders  of  rivals  or  of  foes,  and  (though  it  con 
tains  political  reflections)  there  is  not  to  be  foumd  in  it  a  single  ex 
pression  disrespectful  to  the  laws  of  his  country,  detrimental  to 
the  union  of  the  States,  or  injurious  to  the  rights  or  liberties  of 
the  citizen. 

Having  thus  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  own  testimony,  justified  the 
intelligence  communicated  by  Gen.  Lee  to  Gen.  Washington  ; 


170 

having  exposed,  in  a  careful  analysis,  the  slander  by  which  Mr. 
Jefferson's  false  contradiction  of  that  intelligence  was  accompa 
nied  ;  and  having  shown  by  a  detection  of  repeated  inconsisten 
cies,  numerous  prevarications,  and  glaring  contradictions,  that  his 
imputations  and  assertions,  when  of  a  complexion  to  injure  his 
adversaries  or  to  advantage  himself,  are  not  entitled  to  the  slight 
est  credit,  I  shall  complete  the  task  imposed  upon  me  by  demon 
strating  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  abuse  of  Gen.  Lee,  so  far  from  im 
printing  a  stain  on  the  memory  of  the  latter,  ought  in  justice  to 
be  taken  as  a  flattering  evidence  of  his  merit. 

This  part  of  my  design  is  not,  as  you  may  at  first  be  inclined 
to  think,  a  work  of  supererrogation.  For  no  matter  how  un 
founded  or  unjust  this  abuse  may  now  appear,  there  is  that  in 
the  nature  of  calumny,  which  causes  a  blemish  to  be  left  by  the 
very  process  which  obliterates  its  stain.  Individuals,  will  proba 
bly  be  heard  to  say — 1  see  clearly  that  Gen.  Lee  was  fully 
justified  in  making  the  communications  he  did  make  to  Gen. 
Washington.  I  am  satisfied  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  conduct 
was  unjust,  ungrateful,  and  perfidious.  It  is  evident  that  he 
frequently  overstepped  the  limits  of  fair  opposition  in  his 
political  warfare — that  he  deserted  the  principles  of  honour, 
and  was  not  regulated  by  the  dictates  of  truth.  But  he  was 
a  good  judge  of  mankind]  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
he  could  have  felt  such  detestation  of  Gen.  Lee,  as  his  letter 
to  Gen.  Washington  of  the  \9th  of  June,  1796  expresses, 
without  some  reason  for  it. 

To  counteract  the  force  of  this  inference,  and  to  prove  that  the 
mark  left  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  vilification  on  the  character  of  Gen. 
Lee,  instead  of  being  a  sign  of  disgrace,  is  really  a  stamp  of  honour, 
the  observations  contained  in  the  succeeding  letters  it  is  hoped  will 
suffice.  In  laying  them  before  you  I  shall  not  entrench  myself 
behind  the  trite  but  just  conclusion,  that  if  praise  from  a  friend  is 
not  always  a  compliment,  censure  from  a  foe  is  often  an  enco 
mium.  I  shall  rather  rely  on  the  powerful  analogy  resulting  in 
Gen.  Lee's  favour  from  the  fact,  that  he  is  placed  by  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  hostility  and  defamation  in  the  same  category,  with  Wash 
ington,  Hamilton,  Knox,  Jay,  Richar^Henry  Lee,  Marshall,  and 
the  other  great  patriots  of  that  Roman  band  who  gained  for  our 
country  independence  and  freedom.  And  I  shall  contend,  that  if 
nothing  else  had  been  done  to  invalidate  his  censure  and  repel  his 
virulence,  the  inference  from  this  circumstance  alone,  in  regard 
to  the  character  of  Gen.  Lee  and  the  credit  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
would  be  enough,  in  the  contemplation  of  all  unprejudiced  minds, 
to  obscure  with  shades  of  dishonour  the  name  of  the  one,  and  to 
irradiate  with  reflections  of  glory  the  memory  of  the  other. 


171 
LETTER  XIII. 

GENERAL    WASHINGTON. 

THIS  illustrious  man,  without  advantages  from  birth,  wealth, 
or  education,  left,  for  the  admiration  of  posterity,  a  character, 
which  is  acknowledged  by  the  world  to  place  him  foremost  in  the 
first  class  of  greatness — '  princeps  fundatorum  imperiorum.3*  He 
was  not  admirable  for  genius,  eminent  for  learning,  distinguished 
for  eloquence,  or  remarkable  for  address.  Judgment,  integrity, 
fortitude,  and  benevolence,  constituted  and  completed  his  charac 
ter  ;  exalting  it  to  perfect  magnanimity  and  the  highest  wisdom. 
A  simple  and  sublime  pre-eminence  that  made  men  of  genius, 
learning,  eloquence,  and  address,  his  inferiors  and  instruments. 
His  objects  were  always  noble,  his  means  uniformly  justifiable, 
and  his  measures  the  result  of  deep  reflection  ;  so  that  although 
his  enterprises  were  occasionally  unsuccessful,  they  never  failed 
to  be  glorious.  He  came  into  life  just  in  season  to  achieve  the 
independence  and  establish  the  freedom  of  his  country,  and  was 
withdrawn  to  a  higher  existence  as  soon  as  the  growing  strength 
of  our  institutions  no  longer  required  his  support.  His  career  in 
this  respect  resembling  the  great  river  of  the  Alps,  which  de 
scending  from  snow-crowned  summits,  pours  a  fuller  current 
through  the  plains  of  Italy,  when  they  thirst  and  languish  under 
summer  suns.  In  short,  of  this  Alfred  of  the  western  world,  it 
may  be  said  with  truth,  that  his  destiny  and  principles  so  happily 
concurred,  th*t  he  was  not  only  the  most  meritorious,  but  the 
most  useful  patriot  who  ever  lived. 

The  impression  conveyed  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  "  Writings"  in 
regard  of  the  character  of  this  champion  of  liberty,  is  twofold. 
First,  that  he  was  an  honest  man,  and  a  sincere  patriot,  but 
that  from  deficient  penetration,  apathy  of  political  sentiment,  and 
facility  of  disposition,  he  was  the  instrument  of  a  party  who  were 
intent  on  converting  our  republic  into  a  monarchy ;  second,  that 
his  mind  was  vigorous  and  comprehensive,  but  that  his  political 
principles  were  depraved,  that  his  temper  •  was  suspicious,  his 
opinions  were  monarchical,  and  that  he  was  the  conscious  and 
willing  patron  of  a  criminal  design  against  public  liberty. 

Most  of  these  features,  not  only  thus  strikingly  contrasted,  but 
often  blended  and  confused,  you  may  recognise  in  the  citations 

*  Lord  Bacon,  on  Honour  and  Reputation. 


172 

already  made  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  correspondence.*  But  for  a 
condensed  view  of  the  dark  as  well  as  the  dull  shades  thus 
thrown  on  the  character  of  Washington,  the  following  passages 
appear  to  be  particularly  apposite.  (V.  4.  pp.  184,  5.)  To  Mr. 
Mellish  : — "  At  the  head  of  this  minority  is  what  is  called  the 
Essex  junto  of  Massachusetts.  But  the  majority  of  these  leaders 
do  not  aim  at  separation.  In  this  they  adhere  to  the  known 
principles  of  Gen.  Hamilton,  never  under  any  views  to  break  the 
Union.  Anglonmny,  monarchy,  and  separation  then,  are  the 
principles  of  the  Essex  federalists ;  anglomany  and  monarchy 
those  of  the  Hamiltonians."  "  Gen.  Washington  has  asseverated 
to  me  a  thousand  times  his  determination  that  the  existing  go 
vernment  should  have  a  fair  trial,  and  that  in  support  of  it  he 
would  spend  the  last  drop  of  his  blood.  He  did  this  the  more  re 
peatedly  because  he  knew  Gen.  Hamilton's  political  bias,  and 
my  apprehensions  from  it."  (P.  327.)  To  Dr.  Jones : — "  I  do 
believe  Gen.  Washington  had  not  a  firm  confidence  in  the  dura 
bility  of  our  government.  He  was  naturally  distrustful  of  men, 
and  inclined  to  gloomy  apprehensions  ;  and  I  was  ever  persuaded 
that  a  belief  that  we  must  at  length  end  in  something  like  the 
British  constitution,  had  some  weight  in  his  adoption  of  the  cere 
monies  of  levees,  birth-days,  pompous  meetings  with  Congress, 
and  other  forms  of  the  same  character,  calculated  to  prepare  us 
gradually  for  a  change  which  he  believed  possible,  and  to  let  it 
come  on  with  as  little  shock  as  might  be  to  the  public  mind." 
(pp.  450,  51.)  In  the  Anas : — "  Here  then  was  the  real  ground 
of  the  opposition  that  was  made  to  the  course  of  administration. 
Its  object  was  to  preserve  the  legislature  pure  and^ndependent  of 
the  Executive,  to  restrain  the  administration  to  republican  forms 
and  principles,  and  not  permit  the  constitution  to  be  warped  in 
practice  into  all  the  principles  and  pollutions  of  their  favourite 
British  model.  Nor  was  this  an  opposition  to  Gen.  Washington. 
He  was  true  to  the  republican  charge  confided  to  him,  and  has 
solemnly  and  repeatedly  protested  to  me  that  he  would  lose  the 
last  drop  of  his  blood  in  support  of  it ;  and  he  did  this  the  oftener 
and  with  the  more  earnestness,  because  he  knew  my  suspicions 
of  Hamilton's  designs  against  it,  and  wished  to  quiet  them.  For 
he  was  not  aware  of  the  drift  or  of  the  effects  of  Hamilton's 
schemes.  Unversed  in  financial  projects  and  calculations  and 
budgets,  his  approbation  of  them  was  bottomed  on  his  confidence 
in  the  man.  But  Hamilton  was  not  only  a  monarchist,  but  for 

*  They  may  be  readily  collected  from  the  following  pages: — Vol.3,  pp. 
307,  14,  15, 17, 19,  23,  27,  28^5,  37,  49,  53,  57,  and  58. 


173 

a  monarchy  bottomed  on  corruption."  "  He  was  for  a  hereditary 
King,  with  a  House  of  Lords  and  Commons  corrupted  to  his  will, 
and  standing  between  him  and  the  people." 

To  these  passages  I  shall  add  an  extract  of  a  letter  found  in 
Mr.  Jefferson's  third  volume  (p.  393.)  to  Col.  Taylor.  "  But  our 
present  situation  is  not  a  natural  one.  The  republicans  through 
every  part  of  the  Union  say,  that  it  was  the  irresistible  influence 
and  popularity  of  Gen.  Washington  played  off  by  the  cunning  of 
Hamilton,  which  turned  the  government  over  to  anti-republican 
hands,  or>  turned  the  republicans  chosen  by  the  people  into  anti- 
republicans.  He  delivered  it  over  to  his  successor  in  this  state." 

The  date  of  this  letter  to  Col.  Taylor  is  June,  1798 ;  of  the 
statement  to  Mr.  Hellish,-  January,  1813 ;  of  that  to  Dr.  Jones, 
January,  1814  ;  and  of  the  assertions  in  the  Anas,  February, 
1818  ;  comprehending  in  their  extremes  the  space  of  twenty 
years.  That  they  abound  in  inconsistencies  and  exhibit  contra 
dictions,  cannot  at  this  stage  of  the  examination  excite  surprise 
in  the  minds  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  enemies  or  friends.  These,  how 
ever  they  may  differ  on  other  points,  must  agree  on  this,  that  it 
is  impossible  to  believe  both  sets  of  his  assertions,  one  describing 
Gen.  Washington  as  the  weak  and  subservient  instrument  of 
Hamilton,  the  other  as  his  sagacious  patron  or  criminal  accom 
plice. 

In  reference  to  the  latter  imputation  it  is  averred  that  the  design 
or  "  drift"  of  Hamilton's  schemes,  was  by  corrupting  the  legisla 
ture  to  warp  the  government  of  the  United  States  "  into  a  mo 
narchy  bottomed  on  corruption ;"  that  Gen.  Washington  knew  of 
Hamilton's  political  "  bias"  or  design  and  knew  also  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  suspicions  of  it ;  and  that  possessing  this  knowledge  he  con 
tinued  his  confidence  in  Hamilton,  and  endeavoured  to  quiet  Mr. 
Jefferson's  suspicions  by  protesting  over  and  over  again,  that  he 
would  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood  in  opposing  this  monarchical 
scheme,  while  at  the  same  time  he  was  preparing  the  public 
mind  for  receiving  the  yoke  of  a  monarchy,  with  the  least  possible 
shock  or  resistance.  This  is  the  substance  and  almost  the  letter 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  deliberate  and  recorded  affirmations  ;  and  it  is 
clear  that  if  he  is  entitled  to  credit,  Gen.  Washington,  whose  fame 
as  a  patriot  is  the  pride  and  glory  of  his  country,  was  not  less  a 
traitor  than  Arnold,  and  was  a  far  greater  criminal  than  Burr. 

If  a  President  of  the  United  States  knows  (letter  to  Mr.  Mel- 
lish,  (V.  4.  p.  185.)  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  ear 
nestly  endeavouring,  by  corrupting  the  Legislature,  to  change  our 
government  into  a  monarchy  ;  (Anas,  V.  4.  pp.  446,  7.)  if  he 
also  knows  that  the  Secretary  of  State  suspects  and  reprobates 


174 

this  scheme,  and  yet  endeavours  by  protesting  his  own  deter 
mination  to  maintain  the  republic,  to  quiet  these  suspicions  of 
the  Secretary  of  State  (letters  to  Mr.  Hellish  and  Dr.  Jones,)  and 
Anas,  (V.  4.  p.  450;)  while  at  the  same  time  he  continues  his 
confidence  in  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (Anas,  450,  51,)  and 
conspires  to  bring  about  the  success  of  his  schemes  by  preparing 
the  public  mind  for  submission  to  a  monarchy  •  (letter  to  Dr. 
Jones)  if  I  say  with  this  knowledge,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  pursues  this  conduct,  it  matters  not  whether  his  name  be 
Washington  or  Jackson,  Jefferson  or  Madison,  whether  he  be  "  a 
military  chieftain"  or  "  a  mountain  philosopher,"  he  commits  the 
blackest  treason,  incurs  the  deepest  disgrace,  and  is  liable  to  the 
extremest  punishment.  It  may  be  worth  observing  that  inasmuch 
as  the  levees,  and  other  "  forms  of  the  British  government" 
were  adopted  by  Gen.  Washington  previously  to  the  production 
of  Hamilton's  plan  of  finance,  the  idolaters  of  Mr.  Jefferson  are 
bound  to  believe  that  Gen.  Washington  was  not  only  the  patron, 
but  the  author,  of  the  design  imputed  to  Hamilton,  of  converting 
the  republican  government  of  the  United  States  into  a  monarchy. 

If  the  atrocity  of  this  flagrant  slander  could  admit  of  aggrava 
tion;  it  might  be  derived  from  the  sportive  and  sacrilegious  tem 
per  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  tosses  the  dear-bought  and  venerated 
fame  of  Washington  to  any  whale  that  happened  for  the  moment 
to  be  spouting  on  the  surface  of  the  political  ocean.  On  one  occa 
sion  he  asserts  that  Gen.  Washington  was  aware  of  Hamilton's 
scheme,  at  another  that  he  was  ignorant  of  it.  At  one  moment  he 
declares  that  Gen.  Washington  was  "  true  to  the  republican  charge 
confided  to  him,"  was  resolved  to  "  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood" 
in  perpetuating  our  republic ;  at  the  next,  that  he  was  taking 
measures  to  prepare  the  people  for  quiet  submission  to  a  monarchy. 
To  Mr.  Van  Buren  he  owns,  as  you  no  doubt  remember,  that  in 
March,  1797,  he  had  a  warm  and  affectionate  parting  with  Gen. 
Washington,  while  he  assures  Dr.  Jones,  (Vol.  4.  p.  237,)  that 
he  never  saw  Gen.  Washington  after  his  own  retirement  from 
the  cabinet,  in  December,  1793  ;  adding  in  the  former  case,  that 
there  never  was  the  least  interruption  of  their  friendship  ;  in  the 
latter,  and  more  particularly  in  the  introduction  to  the  Anas, 
(Vol.  4.  p.  453,)  that  Gen.  Washington,  towards  the  close  of  his 
life  became  personally  alienated  from  him. 

One  of  his  assertions  is  so  often  repeated,  that  it  is  a  little  sur 
prising  to  find  such  absolute  uniformity  in  a  fiction  so  obvious. 
He  says,  and  repeats  the  assertion,  that  Gen.  Washington  asseve 
rated  to  him  a  thousand  times  that  he  would  "spend"  or  "shed" 
the  last  drop  of  his  blood  in  support  of  our  republic.  Now,  inde- 


175 

peiidently  of  the  incongruity  of  this  anecdote,  with  the  well- 
known  character  of  Washington — with  his  dignity,  prudence, 
and  modesty,  with  his  infinite  elevation  above  the  vanity  and 
egotism  of  a  life  and  fortune-man,  we  have  the  best  testimony 
which  Mr.  Jefferson's  statements  afford,  that  this  reiterated 
assertion  is  false. 

It  cannot  be  necessary  to  remark  that  the  best  testimony  to  be 
collected  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  writings,  in  regard  to  the  character 
of  Gen.  Washington  and  his  political  friends,  is  circumstantial. 
His  memoranda  of  conversations  with  the  President  are  introduced 
by  the  most  careful  protestation  of  their  fidelity  and  correctness. 
(V.  4.  beginning  of  the  Anas.)  They  extend  in  time  from  March, 
1791,  to  December,  1793  ;  that  is,  more  than  two  years  and  a 
half — and  they  include  upwards  of  fifty  different  notices.  In 
these,  Mr.  Jefferson's  suspicions  of  monarchical  designs  are  three 
times  introduced,  (V.  4.  pp.  470-85  and  93,)  but  on  neither  of 
these  occasions,  nor  on  any  other,  does  Gen.  Washington  make 
use  of  the  expressions  which  Mr.  Jefferson  affirms  he  employed 
on  all  occasions. 

In  the  first  of  these  conversations,  although  Mr.  Jefferson  as 
sured  Gen.  Washington  that  "  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
Gen.  Schuyler,  his  father-in-law,  and  a  numerous  sect,  had  mo 
narchy  in  contemplation,"  the  General,  so  far  from  promising  to 
"  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood,"  in  maintaining  the  republic, 
ridicules  the  idea  of  such  a  charge  against  Hamilton  and  his 
party,  and  makes  no  other  observation  in  regard  to  it  than  that 
"  he  did  not  believe  there  were  ten  men  in  the  United  States 
whose  opinions  were  worth  attention,  who  entertained  such  a 
thought ;"  evidently  excluding  Hamilton  from  that  small  num 
ber,  by  proposing  to  act  as  mediator  in  bringing  about  a  reconci 
liation  between  him  and  Mr.  Jefferson  of  their  political  and  per 
sonal  difference. 

On  the  second  occasion,  (p.  485,)  in  alluding  to  this  imputed 
design,  Gen.  Washington  said — "  if  any  body  wanted  to  change 
our  government  into  a  monarchy,  he  was  sure  it  was  only  a  few 
individuals,  and  that  no  man  in  the  United  States  would  set  his 
face  against  it  more  than  himself."  Now  this  is  quite  a  different 
expression  both  in  words  and  substance  from  the  bloody  slang  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  invention.  Gen.  Washington  could  not  but  know 
that  all  who  suspected  there  was  a  design  of  introducing  a  monar 
chy,  would  be  inclined  to  look  upon  him  as  the  future  monarch, 
and  while  he  was  not  so  boastful  or  loose  as  to  talk  of  spending  or 
shedding  his  blood,  he  was  prudent  enough  to  declare  distinctly 
that  he  would  be  no  party  to  such  a  project.  In  this  there  was 


176 

neither  unseemly  vehemence,  vanity,  nor  egotism,  nor  the  least 
departure  from  "  the  laws  of  his  character." 

On  the  third  occasion,  (p.  493,)  he  uses  the  same  language, 
and  adds,  that  "  for  any  set  of  men  to  entertain  the  idea  of  esta 
blishing  a  monarchy  in  the  United  States,"  would  be  "  proof  of 
their  insanity" — intimating  that  as  the  design  would  be  despe 
rate,  the  suspicion  of  it  was  absurd.  . 

It  is  impossible,  then,  to  believe,  that  out  of  respect  for  a  suspi 
cion  so  ridiculous,  and  in  consideration  of  a  project  so  contempti 
ble,  Gen.  Washington  would  have  poured  forth  foaming  protesta 
tions  of  his  resolution  to  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood  in  support 
of  the  Republic  ! 

To  acquire  a  more  complete  conception  of  these  mis-statements 
and  contradictions,  it  will  be  necessary  for  you  to  bear  in  mind, 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  in  making  them,  assumed  the  attitude  of  a 
witness,  and  placed  his  correspondents  in  the  position  of  compara 
tive  strangers.  He  speaks  in  a  tone  of  historical  dictation  and 
from  professed  personal  knowledge,  of  facts,  that  could  not  have 
been  known  to  the  individuals  in  question,  and  adapts  to  his 
facts,  conclusions  which  neither  of  his  correspondents,  and  but  very 
few  even  of  his  earlier  contemporaries,  could  have  had  the  means 
of  scrutinizing  by  comparison  with  observations  of  their  own.  In 
writing  these  conflicting  aspersions,  he  must  be  considered  as 
saying  to  his  correspondents,  and  in  leaving  them  for  publication, 
to  the  world — though  my  portraiture  of  Gen.  Washington 
may  strike  you  with  surprise,  you  are  not  to  doubt  its  fidelity 
and  exactness,  for  you  must  remember  that  I  ivas  his  prime 
minister  for  more  than  four  years,  and  had,  during  that 
time,  "  daily,  confidential,  and  cordial  intercourse  with  him" 
(V.  4.  p.  237.)  0??  subjects  calculated  to  display  the  obvious, 
and  to  reveal  the  latent,  principles  of  his  character.  You 
must  take  into  account,  that  I  studied  his  disposition  through 
an  acquaintance  of  near  thirty  years,  (Ibid.)  in  the  legisla 
ture  of  Virginia,  and  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  ; 
in  the  intimacy  of  frequent  correspondence,  as  well  as  in  the 
fellowship  of  Cabinet  labours.  If  you  have  any  confidence 
then  in  my  judgment,  you  must  reject  your  own  crude  im 
pressions,  and  adopt  my  conclusions,  grounded  on  the  long, 
intimate,  official,  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  Gen. 
Washington,  which  it  was  my  peculiar  advantage  to  enjoy. 

This  is  the  imposing  and  oracular  tone  in  which  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  dissemminates  the  "  matter  deep  and  dangerous,"  which  I 
have  here  disentangled  from  the  complexity  of  less  glaring  and 
more  timid  slanders.  To  measure  the  distance  of  its  departure 


177 

from  truth,  would  be  as  difficult  as  to  put  a  girdle  round  about 
the  earth. 

But  the  degree  of  indignation  which  it  would  have  excited  in 
the  noble  breast  of  Washington,  may  be  conceived,  not  only 
from  the  force  and  purity  of  his  character,  but  from  expressions 
found  in  a  letter  of  his,  to  Mr.  Jay,  written  about  the  time  the 
insufficiency  of  the  old  confederation,  was  threatening  to  produce 
distractions  among  the  States,  and  the  downfall  of  republican 
government.  "  What  astonishing  changes  a  few  years  are  capable 
of  producing !  I  am  told  that  even  respectable  characters  speak  of  a 
monarchical  form  of  government  without  horror.  From  thinking, 
proceeds  speaking,  then  to  acting  is  often  but  a  single  step.  But 
how  irrevocable  and  tremendous  !  What  a  triumph  for  our 
enemies  to  verify  their  predictions !  What  a  triumph  for  the 
advocates  of  despotism,  to  find  that  we  are  incapable  of  governing 
ourselves,  and  that  systems  founded  on  the  basis  of  equal  liberty, 
are  merely  ideal  and  fallacious.  Would  to  God,  that  wise  mea 
sures  may  be  taken  in  time,  to  avert  the  consequences  we  have 
too  much  reason  to  apprehend."*  Wise  measures  were  taken  in 
time,  and  by  no  men  more  actively  than  by  Jay  and  Hamilton. 

That  this  indignation  would  not  have  been  appeased,  by  the 
artful  or  fearful  qualifications  with  which  Mr.  Jefferson  endea 
voured  occasionally  to  conceal  his  calumnies — such  as,  that  Gen. 
Washington  was  "  the  only  honest  man  who  assented  to  Jay's 
treaty,"  that  he  was  :'  played  off  by  the  cunning  of  Hamilton," 
and  that  .the  odious  measures  of  his  government,  were  "  imputa- 
ble  not  to  him,  but  to  his  counsellors,"  may  be  inferred  from 
remarks  ascribed  to  him,  by  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  (Vol.  4.  pp. 
467,  468.)  "  The  President  said  that  the  pieces  lately  published, 
and  particularly  in  Freneau's  paper,  seemed  to  have  in  view  the 
exciting  opposition  to  the  Government," —  "  He  considered  those 
papers  as  attacking  him  directly,  for  he  must  be  a  fool  indeed  to 
swallow  the  little  sugar-plums  here  and  there  thrown  out  to  him. 
That  in  condemning  the  administration  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  they  condemned  him,  for  if  they  thought  there  were 
measures  pursued  contrary  to  his  sentiments,  they  must  suppose 
him  too  careless  to  attend  to  them,  or  too  stupid  to  understand 
them." 

But  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  more  incurable  proselytes  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  tenants  of  the  shade  of  vanity  and  prejudice,  wor 
shippers  of  words,  who  have  been  attached  to  the  name  of  Jeffer 
son,  by  motives  as  liberal,  as  that  which  attached  moths  to  his 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5.  p.  96. 

23 


178 

garments,  may  insist  that  the  imbroglio  of  imputations,  qualifica 
tions,  assertions,  and  contradictions,  which  we  have  been  con 
sidering,  is  not  a  fair  exposition  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  testimony 
respecting  the  character  of  Gen.  Washington ;  and  that  an 
equitable  commentator  on  his  "Writings,"  would  refer  to  his 
famous  letter  to  Dr.  Jones,  (Vol.  4.  p.  234,)  for  a  sketch,  doing 
justice  at  once  to  the  merit  of  the  subject,  and  to  the  skill  of  the 
artist.  • 

Without  perceiving  the  advantage  which  this  letter  is  to  afford 
Mr.  Jefferson's  reputation,  or  the  possibility  of  extricating  its 
statements  from  contradiction,  with  his  assertions  made  before 
and  after  it  was  written,  respect  for  the  fanatical  despair  with 
which  it  has  been,  and  probably  may  be  lauded  by  his  followers, 
makes  it  proper  to  invite  your  attention  to  it.  It  contains  an 
elaborate  description  of  Gen.  Washington,  in  terms,  though  not 
of  just  delineation,  yet  occasionally  of  strenuous  praise.  But  if  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  written  be  considered,  it  reflects 
more  light  on  the  character  of  Mr.  Jefferson  than  it  sheds  on  that 
of  Gen.  Washington. 

It  is  dated  the  2d  of  January,  1814,  and  appears  to  be  in 
answer  to  a  letter  from  Dr.  Jones,  enclosing  for  the  inspection  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  a  political  essay,  which  the  Doctor  had  prepared 
on  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  federal,  and  democratic  parties. 
Dr.  Jones,  who  was  a  pungent  and  polished  writer,  and  a  gentle 
man  of  classical  taste  and  erudition,  had  expressed  a  fear  of 
encountering  as  many  difficulties  in  endeavouring  to  carry  Gen. 
Washington  safe  through  the  denunciations  and  abuse,  which  in 
conformity  with  Mr.  Jefferson's  precept  and  example,  it  was 
necessary  for  his  partisans  to  heap  on  the  federal  party,  as  beset 
^neas  when  he  bore  Anchises,  through  Grecian  lances,  and  the 
flames  of  Troy.  That  he  had  expressed  this  apprehension,  is 
evident  from  the  following  observation  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  answer, 
(p.  235.)  "  You  say,  that  in  taking  Gen.  Washington  on  your 
shoulders,  to  bear  him  harmless  through  the  federal  coalition,  you 
encounter  a  perilous  topic."  Oppressed  by  this  reasonable  appre 
hension,  Dr.  Jones  implored  that  aid  from  the  god  of  his  idolatry, 
which  in  a  case  of  similar  distress,  a  divinity  had  extended  to  his 
pious  predecessor.  To  satisfy  this  prayer,  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter 
was  despatched  from  the  clouds  of  that  little  Olympus,  Monticello  ; 
and  its  import  must,  no  doubt,  have  appeared  supernatural  to  the 
Doctor,  when  he  discovered  that  the  machinery  interposed  for 
his  deliverance,  was  the  transformation  of  Gen.  Washington  into 
a  democrat — into  a  beloved,  and  loving  confederate  of  Messrs. 
Jefferson.  Giles,  and  Freneau  ;  the  very  men  who  had  openly  re- 


179 

viled,  or  secretly  slandered  himself,  his  friends,  and  his  measures. 
Beginning  his  sketch  with  a  far-fetched  and  intruded  comparison, 
in  order  to  divert  the  Doctor's  attention  from  its  inconsistency  with 
the  current  of  all  his  previous  defamation,  he  thus  addresses  him 
self  to  the  subject.  "  I  think  I  knew  Gen.  Washington  intimate 
ly  and  thoroughly  ;  and  were  I  called  on  to  delineate  his  charac 
ter  it  should  be  in  terms  like  these. 

"  His  mind  was  great  and  powerful  without  being  of  the  very 
first  order ;  his  penetration  strong,  though  not  so  acute  as  that  of 
a  Newton,  Bacon,  or  Locke ;  and  as  far  as  he  saw,  no  judgment 
was  ever  sounder.     It  was  slow  in  operation,  being  little  aided  by 
invention  or  imagination,  but  sure  in  conclusion.      Hence  the 
common  remark  of  his  officers,  of  the  advantage  he  derived  from 
councils  of  war,  where  hearing  all  suggestions,  he  selected  what 
ever  was  best ;  and  certainly  no  general  ever  planned  his  battles 
more  judiciously.     But  if  deranged  during  the  course  of  the  action, 
if  any  member  of  his  plan  was  dislocated  by  sudden  circumstances, 
he  was  slow  in  a  re-adjustment.     The  consequence  was,  he  often 
failed  in  the  field,  and  rarely  against  an  enemy  in  station,  as  at 
Boston  and  York.     He  was  incapable  of  fear,  meeeting  personal 
dangers  with  the   calmest  unconcern.      Perhaps  the   strongest 
feature  in  his  character  was  prudence,  never  acting  until  every 
circumstance,  every  consideration,  was  maturely  weighed  ;  re 
fraining  if  he  saw  a  doubt,  but,  when  once  decided,  going  through 
with  his  purpose,  whatever  obstacles  opposed.     His  integrity  was 
most  pure,  his  justice  the  most  inflexible  I  have  ever  known,  no 
motives  of  interest,  or   consanguinity,  of  friendship,  or  hatred, 
being  able  to  bias  his  decision.     He  was,  indeed,  in  every  sense 
of  the  words,  a  wise,  a  good,  and  a  great  man.     His  temper  was 
naturally  irritable  and  high  toned';  but  reflection  and  resolution 
had  obtained  a  firm  and  habitual  ascendancy  over  it.     If  ever, 
however,  it  broke  its  bonds,   he  was  most  tremendous  in  his 
wrath.     In  his  expenses,  he  was  honourable  but  exact ;  liberal 
in  contributions,  to  whatever  promised  utility  ;  but  frowning  and 
unyielding  on  all  visionary  projects,  and  all  unworthy  calls  on 
his  charity.     His  heart  was  not  warm  in  its  affections  ;  but  he 
exactly  calculated  every  man's  value,  and  gave  him  a  solid  esteem 
proportioned  to  it.     His  person,  you  know,  was  fine,  his  stature 
exactly  what  one  would  wish,  his  deportment  easy,  erect,  and 
noble ;  the  best   horseman  of  his  age,  and   the  most  graceful 
figure  that  could  be  seen  on  horseback." —  "  On  the  whole,  his 
character  was,  in  the  mass,  perfect,  in  nothing  bad,  in  few  points 
indifferent ;  andJt  may  truly  be  said,  that  never  did  nature  and 
fortune  combine  more  perfectly  to  make  a  man  great,  and  to  place 


180 

him  in  the  same  Constellation  with  whatever  worthies  have 
merited  from  man,  an  everlasting  remembrance.  For  his  was 
the  singular  destiny  and  merit  of  leading  the  armies  of  his  country 
successfully  through  an  arduous  war,  for  the  establishment  of  its 
independence  ;  of  conducting  its  councils  through  the  birth  of  a 
government,  new  in  its  forms  and  principles,  until  it  had  settled 
down  into  a  quiet  and  orderly  train  ;  and  of  scrupulously  obeying 
the  laws  through  the  whole  of  his  career,  civil  and  military,  of 
which  the  history  of  the  world  furnishes  no  other  example. 

"  How  then  can  it  be  perilous  for  you  to  take  such  a  man  on 
your  shoulders  ?"  And  he  winds  up  with — "these  are  my  opinions 
of  Gen.  Washington,  which  I  would  vouch  at  the  judgment-seat  of 
God,  having  been  formed  on  an  acquaintance  of  thirty  years." 
Yet  of  this  pure  and  elevated  patriot,  with  a  mind  so  great  and 
powerful,  a  penetration  so  strong,  a  judgment  so  lucid,  a  prudence 
so  predominating,  of  inflexible  justice,  moderate  affections,  calcu 
lating  confidences,  and  long  and  meritorious  services,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  after  thirty  years  of  acquaintance  with  him,  declared,  "  I  wish 
that  his  honesty  and  his  political  errors  may  not  furnish  a  second 
occasion  to  exclaim,  "  curse  on  his  virtues,  they  have  undone  his 
country," — and  that  he  had  "truckled  servilely  to  England." 

Of  Washington,  who  he  confesses,  "  was  in  every  sense  of  the 
words,  a  wise,  a  good,  and  a  great  man  ;"  and  who  "  had  the 
singular  merit  of  leading  the  armies  of  his  country  successfully 
through  an  arduous  war,  for  the  establishment  of  its  indepen 
dence,  and  of  conducting  its  councils  through  the  biith  of  a 
government  new  in  its  forms  and  principles,  until  it  had  settled 
down  into  a  quiet  and  orderly  train,"  he  deprecated  to  Col.  Burr 
and  others,  the  popularity  and  influence.  And  in  regard  to  his 
administration,  Mr.  Jefferson  assured  Col.  Taylor,  that  Washing 
ton  had  delivered  the  government  to  his  successor  in  an  anti- 
republican  state  ;  informed  Mr.  Livingston  that  it  was  "  repub 
licanism  travestie ;"  and  protested  to  Mr.  Madison,  that  he  was 
rejoiced  to  see  that  "  the  birth-night  balls,  were  not  those  of  the 
President  but  the  General,  and  of  course  that  time  would  bring 
an  end  of  them." 

Now  as  these  statements  and  opinions  never  were  retracted,  it 
is  very  clear  that  this  tardy  and  unatoning  praise,  so  far  from 
extracting  the  poison,  or  allaying  the  acrimony  of  previous  de 
traction,  really  aggravates  them,  since  it  proves  that  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  at  the  very  time  he  was  defaming  the  character  of  Gen. 
Washington,  was  perfectly  sensible  of  his  eminent  services,  and 
his  great  abilities  and  virtue. 


181 

But  as  if  to  crown  this  hypocritical  panegyric  with  a  suitable 
degree  of  effrontery,  he  affirms  both  in  this  letter  to  Dr.  Jones, 
and  in  a  subsequent  one  to  Mr.  Van  Buren,  that  although  he  and 
his  friends  saw  clearly  the  faults  and  errors  of  Washington,  they 
took  into  consideration  the  honesty  of  the  old  gentleman's  inten 
tions,  and  after  they  "  had  tumbled  his  seducers  from  their  places," 
heartily  forgave  him.  His  words  to  Dr.  Jones,  are  (Vol.  4.  p. 
237,)  "  We  were  indeed  dissatisfied  with  him  as  to  the  British 
treaty.  But  this  was  short-lived.  We  knew  his  honesty,  the 
wiles  with  which  he  was  encompassed,  and  that  age  (Gen. 
Washington  was  sixty-three  only,)  had  already  begun  to  relax 
the  firmness  of  his  purposes,"  &c.  This  is,  beyond  all  dispute, 
the  most  diabolical  impudence  that  ever  escaped  from  the  nether 
to  the  upper  world. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  point  out  the  intrinsic  fallacies  of  this 
elaborate  description  of  Gen.  Washington,  or  to  show  that  his 
eulogist  was  so  unaccustomed  to  speak  of  him  in  the  language  of 
praise,  that  he  could  not  avoid  absurdities  and  error.  The  com 
parison  with  Bacon,  Newton,  and  Locke,  is  less  appropriate  than 
a  parallel  with  Paganini  would  now  be  ;  for  in  his  younger  days, 
Washington,  it  is  said,  played  the  fiddle,  while  it  is  well  known 
that  he  never  wrote  on  metaphysics,  astronomy,  or  the  augmenta 
tion  of  knowledge,  by  the  employment  of  inductive  reasoning. 
The  idea  of  proving  the  inflexibility  of  his  justice,  by  affirming  that 
no  motives  of  friendship  could  influence  it,  and  then  declaring 
that  "  his  heart  was  riot  warm  in  its  affections,"  is  not  a  happy 
one,  especially  as  the  latter  assertion  is  unfounded.  For  inde 
pendently  of  traditional  evidence,  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  that 
Gen.  Washington,  with  the  "  quick  sensibility"  ascribed  to  him 
by  Marshall,  and  the  "  high-toned  and  irritable  temper"  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  says  he  possessed,  could  have  had  a  "  heart  not 
warm  in  its  affections." 

The  natural  incompatibility  which  subsisted  between  them 
may  well  have  made  him  appear  cold  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  but  his 
friendship  for  Gen.  Lee,  in  particular,  is  known  to  have  been  ex 
ceedingly  warm  ;  and  open  to  the  utmost  familiarity. 

So  far  from  being  "  naturally  distrustful  of  men,"  as  Dr.  Jones 
is  assured  he  was,  his  persevering  confidence  in  Mr.  Jefferson 
himself,  even  after  he  had  been  warned  of  his  treachery,  is  proof 
of  the  contrary,  and  is  in  conformity  with  the  acknowledged 
strength  and  magnanimity  of  his  character. 

The  military  remarks  in  this  sketch  are  worthy  of  the  great 
antagonist  of  Arnold.  After  asserting  that  no  general  ever  plan 
ned  his  battles  more  judiciously  than  Washington  did,  he  states 


as  a  consequence,  that  he  "  often  failed  in  the  field,  and  rarely  in 
a  siege — as  at  York  and  Boston  !"  His  assertion  that  Gen. 
Washington  "  scrupulously  obeyed  the  laws  through  the  whole 
of  his  career,  civil  and  military"  is  proof  of  the  c  vein'  in  which  he 
was  writing.  He  knew  that  in  foraging  on  the  farms  of  New- 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  for  the  supply  of  his  army  Avith  food, 
Gen.  Washington  violated  the  laws  of  those  States  providing  for 
the  security  of  property.  And  that  in  "authorising  Gen.  Lee, 
when  only  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  in  the  subordinate 
rank  of  Major,  to  execute  deserters  without  a  trial,  he  was  vio 
lating  the  laws  securing  life  ;  and  that  in  both  cases  he  acted  as 
Gen.  Jackson  afterwards  acted  at  New-Orleans,  on  the  great 
laws  of  moral  justice  and  public  necessity. 

There  are  circumstances  connected  with  the  acknowledgment 
on  the  part  of  Dr.  Jones,  that  it  was  impossible  to  "  bear  Gen. 
Washington  on  his  shoulders  harmless  through  the  federal  coali 
tion" — in  other  words,  that  it  was  impossible  to  represent  the 
friends  and  measures  of  Gen.  Washington  as  corrupt  and 
monarchical,  without  censuring  him,  which  fall  in  with  the  pre 
sent  occasion  and  deserve  to  be  noticed.  In  the  final  struggle  of 
the  Federal  and  Democratic  parties,  the  one  to  gain,  and  the 
other  to  preserve  an  ascendency  in  the  national  councils,  Gen. 
Lee  at  the  instance  of  Gen.  Washington  and  other  friends,  be 
came  a  candidate  for  Congress,  in  that  district  of  Virginia  which 
included  the  birth-place  of  Gen.  Washington,  and  bordered  on 
the  one  which  included  his  residence.  The  candidate  opposed  to 
Gen.  Lee,  and  representing  the  opinions  of  the  Jefferson  party, 
was  this  very  Dr.  Jones.  So  that  these  competitors  were  known 
to  be  the  personal  and  political  friends,  the  one  of  Jefferson  and 
the  other  of  Washington — were  looked  on  as  the  champions  of 
their  adverse  wishes  and  sentiments,  and  of  course  engaged  in  a 
peculiar  degree  the  zeal  of  their  respective  parties.  Dr.  Jones 
though  surpassed  by  no  man  in  colloquial  elegance  and  irony, 
was  no  match  for  his  antagonist  in  popular  address  and  public 
eloquence,  and  after  an  animated  canvass,  Gen.  Lee  was  elected 
by  a  small  majority  of  votes.  This  ardent  and  signal  competi 
tion  served  to  heighten  the  opposition  of  sentiment  between  Gen. 
Lee  and  Dr.  Jones  ;  and  it  may  be  affirmed  in  respect  of  them, 
that  though  personal  friends,  there  were  no  two  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  at  that  time,  whose  political  opinions  and  predilec 
tions  were  more  pointedly  antagonist  than  theirs  were.  Yet  we 
find  them  concurring  on  this  subject,  that  Mr.  JefTerson  had  ex 
pressed  and  countenanced  opinions  derogating  from  the  character 


183 

of  Gen.  Washington,  and  which  if  true,  rendered  it  impossible  to 
believe  that  he  was  not  inexcusably  culpable. 

These  derogatory  expressions  and  opinions,  running  through 
all  the  varieties  of  slander  from  prevarications  to  inconsistencies, 
from  inconsistencies  to  contradictions,  need  not  be  recapitulated. 
The  observations  which  have  been  already  applied  to  them  will 
satisfy  you  of  the  selfish  purpose  for  which  they  were  uttered,  and 
cannot  fail  to  convince  you  that  from  their  author,  censure  and 
abuse  were  more  complimentary,  than  the  highest  approbation  or 
the  warmest  praise. 


LETTER  XIV. 

FOR  wisdom  and  merit,  patriotic  services,  and  political  ability, 
among  the  founders  of  our  republic,  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 
stands  second  to  Washington  alone — a  position  which  reflects  the 
brightest  glory  on  them  both.  With  a  zeal  fed  by  continual  ardour, 
he  devoted  to  the  varying  exigencies  of  his  country,  a  mind  whose 
resources  proved  always  greater  than  the  greatest  occasions.  His 
invention  was  quick,  his  judgment  strong,  his  understanding  ca 
pacious,  his  penetration  acute,  and  his  memory  faithful.  He  was 
prudent  in  council,*  daring  in  the  field,t  eloquent  in  the  Senate, 
cogent  and  persuasive  as  a  writer,  expeditious  and  indefatigable 
in  the  administration  of  affairs,  disinterested,  liberal,  firm  and  en 
thusiastic.  In  matters  of  private  feeling  and  personal  honour, 
his  frankness  and  spirit  were  proverbial,  and  in  his  last  actt  were 
perhaps  excessive. 

*  An  anecdote  of  Hamilton  recorded  in  Gen  Wilkinson's  memoirs,  and 
which  was  before  current  in  conversation,  evinces  his  extreme  sagacity  as  a 
military  counsellor.  A  plan  had  been  devised  by  Gen.  Washington,  while 
the  British  army  lay  in  New- York,  for  seizing  the  person  of  Sir  H.  Clinton, 
then  the  English  Commander-in-Chief.  It  was  considered,  determined  on, 
and  on  the  point  of  being  put  in  execution,  when  Hamilton  suggested  to 
Gen.  Washington,  that  although  it  might  succeed,  and  for  a  time  create  a 
favourable  impression,  he  was  of  opinion  it  would  be  more  advantageous  to 
the  enemy  than  to  the  Americans;  inasmuch  as  they  knew  Clinton  to  be  by 
no  means  a  formidable  antagonist,  were  acquainted  with  his  plans  and  offi 
cial  habits :  whereas  if  they  removed  him,  his  successor  could  hardly  fail  to 
be  a  more  efficient  adversary.  This  view  of  the  subject  convinced  Washing 
ton  that  it  was  more  advisable  to  preserve  than  to  remove  the  British  Com 
mander-in-Chief,  and  the  project  was  abandoned. 

t  He  led  the  party  which  took  by  assault  the  redoubt  on  the  British  left, 
at  the  siege  of  York.— Marshall,  Vol.  4.  p.  485. 

$  Gen.  Hamilton  was  killed  in  a  duel  by  Col.  Burr,  in  July,  1804.  He 
went  to  the  ground  determined  to  receive  but  not  to  return  his  adversary's 


184 

-"  Animoeque  magnw 


"  Prodigum  paulum. 

Of  a  life,  the  term  of  which  fell  short  of  fifty  years,  he  gave 
twenty  to  the  public  service,  and  left  it  poor  in  every  thing  but 
a  title  to  renown  and  honour.  This,  nor  a  cruel  death,  nor  a 
neglected  grave,  nor  a  calumnious  rival,  could  take  away  ;  and 
as  a  devoted  patriot,  an  accomplished  soldier,  statesman,  orator, 
scholar,  and  gentleman,  the  memory  of  Hamilton  will  bloom  and 
flourish,  as  long  as  the  admiration  of  mankind  shall  attend  ex 
alted  genius,  heroic  virtues,  generous  affections,  and  glorious 
deeds. 

The  main  drift  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  "  Writings"  as  far  as  they  re 
fer  to  the  political  history  of  his  own  times,  is,  as  you  must  have 
observed,  to  impress  a  persuasion  that  Hamilton  was  at  heart  a 
traitor — that  he  not  only  devised  but  designed  a  change  of  our 
government  into  a  monarchy — that  in  order  to  perpetrate  this  in 
famous  project,  he  invented  a  scheme  no  less  infamous,  for  cor 
rupting  the  federal  legislature,  and  maintained  a  criminal  under 
standing  with  the  British  Government,  and  with  the  British  en 
voy  in  the  United  States. 

This  imputation  against  Hamilton,  which  is  put  forward  with 
as  much  confidence  as  could  be  manifested  in  calling  Arnold  a 
traitor,  is  distinctly  embodied  in  the  citations  already  made 
from  the  letter  to  Mr.  Mellish  and  from  the  introduction  to  the 
Anas.  And  although  it  is  made  by  a  man  who  bore  no  part 
either  in  defending  the  liberties  of  the  country,  or  in  framing  or 
in  establishing  the  republican  system  constructed  for  securing 
them  ;  and  against  a  man,  who  in  all  these  labours  took  a  large 
and  conspicuous  share,  it  is  supported  by  no  better  evidence  than 
what  may  be  found  in  the  following  passage  of  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Jefferson  to  Dr.  Rush.  (Vol.  4.  pp.  155-6.)  "  While  Mr.  Adams 
was  Vice  President  and  I  Secretary  of  State,  I  received  a  letter 
from  President  Washington,  then  at  Mount  Vernon,  desiring  me 
to  call  together  the  heads  of  departments,  and  to  invite  Mr.  Adams 
to  join  us,  (which  by  the  bye  was  the  only  instance  of  that  being 
done)  in  order  to  determine  on  some  measure  which  required 
despatch ;  and  he  desired  me  to  act  on  it  as  decided,  without 


fire,  and  acted  on  this  determination — thus  offering  up  his  own  life  to  a  sense 
of  honour,  and  shielding  his  enemy's  by  a  feeling  of  religion.  He  left  behind 
him  a  paper  explaining  his  motives  on  the  melancholy  occasion,  in  which  he 
declared  that  as  a  military  man  he  could  not  refuse  the  invitation  of  Col. 
Burr — while  as  a  Christian  he  would  not  shed  the  blood  of  a  fellow-creature 
in  private  combat. 


185 

again  recurring  to  him.*  1  invited  them  to  dine  with  me ;  and 
after  dinner,  sitting  at  our  wine,  having  settled  our  question,  other 
conversation  came  on,  in  which  a  collision  of  opinion  arose  be 
tween  Mr.  Adams  and  Col.  Hamilton,  on  the  merits  of  the  British 
Constitution,  Mr.  Adams  giving  it  as  his  opinion,  that  if  some  of 
its  defects  and  abuses  were  corrected,  it  would  be  the  most  perfect 
constitution  of  government  ever  devised  by  man.  Hamilton  on 
the  contrary  asserted,  that  with  its  existing  vices,  it  was  the  most 
perfect  model  of  government  that  could  be  formed  ;  and  that  the 
correction  of  its  vices  would  render  it  an  impracticable  govern 
ment.  And  this  you  may  be  assured  was  the  real  line  of  differ 
ence  between  the  political  principles  of  these  two  gentlemen. 
Another  incident  took  place  on  the  same  occasion,  which  will 
further  delineate  Hamilton's  political  principles.  The  room  being 
hung  around  with  a  collection  of  the  portraits  of  remarkable  men, 
among  them  were  those  of  Bacon,  Newton,  and  Locke.  Hamil 
ton  asked  me  who  they  were.  I  told  him  they  were  my  trinity 
of  the  three  greatest  men  the  world  had  ever  produced,  naming 
them.  He  paused  for  some  time  :  "  the  greatest  man,"  said  he, 
"  that  ever  lived  was  Julius  Ceasar." 

Now  if  any  man  can  contemplate  this  pompous  parade  of  in 
significant  circumstances  without  laughing,  he  must  have  a  sin 
gular  insensibility  to  the  ridiculous,  or  a  surprising  command  of 
his  countenance.  In  regard  to  proof — although  it  is  substantially 
repeated  with  a  solemn  attestation  to  God,  (Vol.  4.  p.  450,)  it 
possesses  not  as  much  as  Falstaff's  company  of  recruits  did  of 
linen.  As  this  latter  version  affects  to  be  verbatim,  and  there 
fore  to  exclude  any  allowances  for  inaccuracy  of  language,  it 
will  be  doing  Mr.  Jefferson  justice  to  submit  it  in  preference  for 
consideration,  u  Mr.  Adams  observed,  l  purge  that  constitution  of 
its  corruption,  and  give  to  its  popular  branch  equality  of  repre 
sentation,  and  it  would  be  the  most  perfect  constitution  ever  de 
vised  by  the  wit  of  man."  Hamilton  paused  and  said,  "  purge  it 
of  its  corruption,  and  give  to  its  popular  branch  equality  of  re 
presentation,  and  it  would  become  an  impracticable  government ; 
as  it  stands  at  present  with  all  its  supposed  defects,  it  is  the  most 
perfect  government  that  ever  existed." 

Even  admitting  that  all  this  is  true,  that  what  Hamilton  did  say 
and  mean  was  accurately  understood  and  fairly  recorded  by  Mr.  Jef- 

*  Here  Mr.  Jefferson  might  have  observed  that  as  Gen.  Washington  was 
at  this  time  on  his  tour  to  the  Southern  States — then  but  slowly  and  rarely 
visited  by  the  public  mail — a  reference  to  the  Vice  President,  and  non-recur 
rence  to  the  President,  on  a  subject  requiring  despatch,  were  seasonable  and 
proper. 

24 


186 

fersonjcan  any  reasonable  man,  any  man  out  of  Bedlam,  or  not  des 
tined  for  that  asylum,  infer  from  this  anecdote,  the  existence  of  a 
design  in  the  breast  of  Hamilton  to  overturn  our  republic  ?  In 
the  month  of  April,  1791,  three  gentlemen,  we  are  told,  were  sitting 
at  their  wine  in  Philadelphia,  all  of  them  by  study  and  practice 
statesmen ;  and  the  subject  of  the  British  Constitution  happen 
ing  to  be  mentioned,  one  of  them  observed,  that  by  purging  it 
of  the  corrupt  influence  of  the  crown  ajid  aristocracy,  and  equa 
lising  the  right  of  voting  for  representatives,  it  would  be  the  most 
perfect  constitution  ever  devised  by  the  wit  of  man.  One  of  the 
three  gentlemen  contested  this  point,  asserted  that  the  alteration 
suggested  would  render  the  British  Government  an  impractica 
ble  one,  that  as  it  stood  it  was  the  most  perfect  government  that 
ever  existed.  The  third  gentleman,  who  is  master  of  the  house 
says  nothing,  neither  assents  to,  nor  dissents  from,  either  opinion, 
but  carefully  notes  down  this  casual  conversation,  as  proof  of 
an  intention  in  the  second  gentleman,  to  convert  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  by  corrupting  the  Legislature,  into  a 
monarchy. 

Now  which  of  those  parties  was  most  likely  to  betray  his  friend 
or  his  country  ?  which  was  most  fit  for  stratagems  and  trea 
sons?  the  unsuspecting  guest  who  made  a  speculative  assertion, 
the  main  point  of  which  few  men  at  that  time  would  have 
thought  of  questioning,  and  who  little  deemed  he  was  subjecting 
himself  for  trial  on  his  allegiance  ;  or  the  attentive  host,  who  with 
a  malice  that  hospitality  could  not  allay,  and  a  suspicion  which 
wine  could  not  suspend,  "sifted  this  table  conversation,"  and 
slipped  it  into  the  poisoned  quiver  of  his  memory,  to  be  directed 
at  "a  propitious  season,"  against  the  unguarded  honour  of  his 
companion  and  colleague  ?  This  question  admits  of  but  one  an 
swer,  and  that  of  no  excuse  for  Mr.  Jefferson. 

Let  it  be  recollected  that  our  government  had  then  been  but 
two  years  in  operation,  was  confessed  on  all  hands  to  be  an  ex 
periment  delicate  and  doubtful,  was  still  exposed  to  the  opposition 
and  antipathy  of  many  great  patriots,  and  was  thought  by  its 
best  friends  to  be  attended  by  as  many  chances  of  failure,  as  suc 
cess.  Let  it  be  remembered  also,  that  besides  many  of  its  most 
important  forms,  its  leading  principles,  such  as  the  representative 
system,  the  trial  by  jury,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  the  benefit  of 
the  habeas  corpus  act,  and  exemption  from  ex  post  facto  laws, 
were  directly  derived  from  the  British  Constitution  :  and  it 
will  be  difficult  to  conceive  what  other  constitution  than  that  of 
England,  a  man  of  reading  and  reflection,  could,  at  the  date  of 
this  imputed  conversation,  have  considered  the  best  that  ever 


187 

existed.  He  could  not  be  expected  to  bring  ours  into  comparison, 
for  our  State  governments  being  provincial  and  domestic  in  their 
nature,  were  incommensurable  with  complete  and  paramount 
systems ;  our  first  experiment  on  a  general  plan  had  signally 
failed,  and  our  second  had  not  been  tested  by  time  or  trial,  while 
the  incipient  steps  of  its  progress  encountered  violent  opposition, 
and  exposed  it  to  severe  strictures.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  would  have  been  less  logical  than  ludicrous  to  subject  it  to  a 
comparison  with  old  governments,  in  respect  of  the  indispensable 
property  of  duration.  It  would  have  been  either  below  or  above 
the  line  of  reason  and  argument,  would  have  been  a  petitio  prin- 
cipii,  or  a  prophecy. 

Seeing  then  that  our  political  nursling  could  not  have  been  in 
the  contemplation  of  Hamilton,  it  would  appear  probable  that  in 
order  to  escape  the  malediction  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  he  should  have 
declared  a  preference  for  the  government  of  France,  Spain  or 
Russia — for  the  despotism  of  mobs,  bigots,  or  autocrats. 

It  follows  from  all  this,  admitting  that  a  speculative  opinion  of 
any  sort  respecting  the  advantages  of  a  foreign  government, 
should  at  any  time  be  taken  as  a  test  of  patriotism  in  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  that  the  man  who  in  conformity  with  the 
opinions  of  Montesquieu  and  De  Lolme,  expressed  in  the  year 
1791,  admiration  for  the  British  government,  evinced,  so  far,  re 
spect  and  attachment  for  the  analogous  system  which  Washing 
ton  and  Hamilton  had  exerted  themselves  to  establish,  were  en 
deavouring  to  administer  fof  the  benefit,  and  to  confirm  in  the 
affections  of  their  countrymen. 

The  fairest  view  of  the  subject  is  however  afforded  by  the 
consideration,  that  while  Hamilton  who  had  assisted  in  framing 
the  constitution,  and  had  surpassed,  (Mr.  Madison  alone  ex- 
cepted)  all  his  fellow-citizens  in  recommending  it  with  zeal  and 
ability  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  is  here  represented  as 
an  enemy  to  the  constitution,  and  a  traitor  to  his  country ;  his 
hospitable  accuser,  (having  borne  no  part  in  the  formation  of  the 
constitution)  had  declared  himself  neutral  in  the  contest  between 
its  advocates  and  its  enemies,  had  expressed,  while  the  event  of 
Hamilton's  struggle  for  its  success  was  doubtful  (Vol.  2.  pp. 
274  and  78.)  decided  opposition  to  some  of  its  essential  pro 
visions,  subsequently  encouraged  an  insurrection  against .  its 
laws,  (Vol.  4.  pp.  308  et  passim.}  invented  a  political  aconite 
for  its  destruction,  (Vol.  4.  pp.  344.)  and  to  his  latest  breath 
maintained  an  unceasing  hostility  against  its  conservative  de 
partment.  (Vol.  4.  p.  337.) 


188 

This  contrast  speaks  as  strongly  in  favour  of  the  modesty  as 
of  the  equity  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  And  it  shews  that  even  if  our 
government,  which  was  then  in  its  cradle,  could  be  supposed  to 
have  been  within  the  contemplation  of  the  parties  to  the  "  table 
conversation  "  confessed  to  have  been  "  sifted  "  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
good  taste  and  good  breeding  would  have  united  to  deter  Gen. 
Hamilton  from  extolling  a  system,  which  was  known  to  have 
been  in  part  the  subject  of  his  own  creation,  the  theme  of  his 
successful  commendation,  and  which  was  at  the  same  time  un 
derstood  to  have  engaged  any  thing  but  the  predilection  of  his 
entertainer.  As  to  the  alleged  difference  of  opinion  between  Mr. 
Adams  and  Gen.  Hamilton  on  the  hypothetical  alteration  of  the 
British  Constitution,  that  was  a  subject  so  perfectly  abstract,  that 
it  is  impossible  to  derive  from  it  the  remotest  inference,  in  regard 
of  the  political  character  or  fidelity  of  either  of  those  gentlemen. 
The  probability  is,  however,  that  from  the  less  extended  diffusion 
of  political  knowledge  among  the  people  of  England  at  that 
period,  the  system  of  Parliamentary  reform  now  under  their  con 
sideration,  would,  if  adopted  then,  have  endangered  the  stability 
of  the  British  Government,  and,  as  Hamilton  observed,  rendered 
it  impracticable. 

If  it  were  not  from  an  apprehension  that  I  might  appear  to 
think  that  Hamilton's  character  for  patriotism  required  to  be 
proved,  I  should  observe  that  if  his  intentions  were  as  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  alleges,  treasonable,  and  his  "  cunning"  so  great  as  to 
enable  him  to  "  play  off"  the  influence  of  a  man  so  "  wise,  great, 
and  prudent,"  as  Dr.  Jones  is  assured  Gen.  Washington  was,  it 
is  absurd  to  suppose  that  he  would  have  made  use  of  a  remark  in 
controversy  with  the  Yice-President,  and  in  presence  of  the  Se 
cretary  of  State,  of  a  nature  to  betray  his  meditated  treason. 
But  as  I  have  all  along  argued  upon  the  admission  that  this  con 
versation  actually  took  place,  the  natural  question  whether  Mr. 
Jefferson's  assertion  to  that  effect  is  true,  remains  to  be  considered. 
The  earliest  mention  of  it  to  be  found  in  his  writings,  is  in  the 
letter  to  Dr.  Rush  above  referred  to,  and  dated  January  the  16th, 
1811,  about  twenty  years  after  it  is  said  to  have  occurred. 
Throughout  this  tract  of  time  his  hatred  and  crimination  of 
Hamilton,  flowed  in  a  continued  and  unadulterated  stream  of 
bitterness.  He  affirms  that  on  the  10th  of  July,  ]  792,  he  told 
Gen.  Washington,  that  Hamilton  "  had  monarchy  in  contem 
plation,1'  and  as  proof  of  this  charge  that  he  had  heard  Hamilton 
"  say  that  our  constitution  was  a  shilly-shally  thing  of  mere  milk 
and  water,  &c."  In  December,  1800,  he  describes  Hamilton  to 
Col.  Burr  as  "  the  evil  genius  of  his  country."  In  July,  1801, 


189 

Levi  Lincoln  is  assured  that  Hamilton's  object  was  to  "  sap  the 
republic  by  fraud,  if  he  could  not  destroy  it  by  force,  and  to  erect 
an  English  monarchy  in  its  place."  (V.  3.  p.  471.)  Yet  on 
none  of  these  occasions  is  this  conversation  related  or  alluded  to, 
which  when  mentioned  to  Dr.  Rush,  is  considered  par  excellence 
as  incontestible  proof  in  support  of  this  charge  of  monarchy  and 
treason. 

Again — to  show  that  nothing  like  accuracy  was  observed  in 
detailing  it,  a  gross  inconsistency  may  be  pointed  out  between 
the  two  versions  of  it  that  have  been  referred  to.  In  the  letter  to 
Dr.  Rush  it  is  said,  that  the  President  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson, 
desiring  him  to  call  together  the  heads  of  departments  and  to  in 
vite  the  Vice- President  to  join  them  in  order  to  consult  and  de 
termine  on  a  particular  measure  which  required  despatch,  and 
instructing  him  to  act  on  that  particular  measure  in  conformity 
with  this  determination  of  the  cabinet  and  Y ice-President,  without 
recurrence  to  the  President. 

In  the  introduction  to  the  Anas,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  asserted 
that  Gen.  Washington  instead  of  writing  a  special  letter  to  Mr. 
Jefferson,  desiring  him  thus  to  consult  and  act  on  a  particular 
measure  requiring  despatch,  wrote  a  circular  letter  to  all  the  Se 
cretaries,  instructing  them  generally  and  prospectively,  to  pursue 
this  course  on  any  measures  that  might  require  the  action  of  the 
government  during  his  absence.  Further,  in  the  Anas,  in  order 
to  give  a  deeper  colour  to  Hamilton's  treason,  it  is  averred,  (and 
in  attestation  of  the  truth  of  the  assertion  Mr.  Jefferson  invokes 
"  the  God  who  made  him")  that  when  about  to  dispute  the  ob 
servation  of  Mr.  Adams  respecting  the  British  constitution,  ((  he 
paused."  But  in  the  letter  to  Dr.  Rush  this  dramatic  pause  is 
put  with  more  poetical  justice  before  the  remark  respecting  Ju 
lius  Csesar.  But  at  whatever  time  the  pause  of  this  pregnant 
anecdote  was  made,  either  over  the  corruption  of  the  British  con 
stitution,  or  in  front  of  "  the  world's  great  master  and  his  own," 
it  shews  that  when  Hamilton  was  about  to  talk  treason  he  was 
apt  to  make  a  significant  stop,  in  order  to  rivet  the  attention  of 
his  auditors.  And  it  is  probable  that  to  this  oratorical  art,  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  indebted  for  the  privilege  of  being  able  after  the 
lapse  of  twenty-seven  years,  to  repeat  this  "  table  conversation" 
verbatim  ;  and  under  the  sanction  of  an  appeal  to  God,  in  proof 
of  its  literal  accuracy. 

Upon  the  whole  it  appears,  as  well  from  the  general  tenor  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  assertions  respecting  the  character  of  his  political 
enemies,  as  from  the  inconsistency  of  his  statements  on  this 
particular  subject,  that  the  only  reason  for  believing  that  the  re- 


190 

marks  here  put  into  the  mouth  of  Gen.  Hamilton  were  actually 
uttered  by  him,  is,  that  they  are  perfectly  compatible  with  the 
character  of  a  patriotic  citizen  and  an  enlightened  man. 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  produces  from  the  same  dialogue,  "  another 
incident,"  which  he  seems  with  great  reason  to  consider  as 
equally  efficacious  in  proving  Hamilton's  political  turpitude.  It 
is,  as  you  have  already  seen,  lhat  at  Mr.  Jefferson's  hospitable 
board,  Hamilton  said  "  Julius  Caesar  wal  the  greatest  man  that 
ever  lived."  And  to  aggravate  the  enormity  of  this  open  attempt 
on  the  liberties  of  his  country,  Hamilton  it  would  seem  made  this 
daring  assertion  after  Mr.  Jefferson  had  told  him  that  Bacon, 
Newton  and  Locke  were  the  greatest  men  "  the  world  had  ever 
produced." 

The  inference  here  attempted,  it  must  be  confessed,  "  at  one 
bound  high  overleaps  all  bounds."  It  is  however  of  the  true  Jef- 
fersonian  press-copy  stamp,  under  which  assurance  and  malice 
were  circulated  for  fairness  and  truth.  This  monstrous  and 
abominable  opinion  which  Hamilton  had  the  audacity  to  utter, 
and  with  the  emphasis  of  a  preliminary  pause,  to  propel  against 
the  patriotic  nerves  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  happened  not  only  to  coin 
cide  with  the  opinion  of  the  world,  but  to  be  in  exact  conformity 
with  the  dictum  of  Lord  Bacon,  who  in  one  of  his  Essays  ob 
serves  that  "  Julius  Ceesar  was  the  most  complete  character  of  all 
antiquity." 

It  may  however  be  urged,  that  in  the  lapse  of  years  between 
the  commencement  of  modern  history  and  the  year  1791,  there 
had  lived  men,  among  them  Bacon,  Newton,  and  Locke,  for 
whom  Hamilton,  in  order  to  save  his  political  virtue,  ought  to 
have  expressed  greater  admiration  than  for  Julius  Caesar.  Yet 
Montesquieu,  the  philosopher  of  liberty  and  law,  who  died  about 
the  time  Hamilton  was  born,  (1755)  has  left  on  his  immortal 
pages  the  same  opinion ;  *  as  has  Lord  Byron  t,  who  lived  after 
Hamilton  was  dead,  who  was  the  devoted  friend  of  human  free 
dom,  risked  his  fortune  and  his  life  in  an  attempt  to  rescue  Italy 
from  servitude,  and  expired  in  a  generous  struggle  for  the  liberty 
of  Greece.  As  Lord  Bacon  was  Mr.  Jefferson's  principal  idol,  it 
would  follow  that  the  charge  of  bribery  and  corruption  in  office, 
would,  by  his  own  reasoning,  lie  against  Mr.  Jefferson,  inasmuch 
as  Lord  Bacon  was  convicted,  fined  and  disgraced  for  that  offence. 

You  will  easily  recollect  that  on  one  occasion,  in  order  to  fix 
deeply  on  the  memory  of  Hamilton  this  charge  of  treason,  Mr. 

*  Grandeur  et  Decadence  des  Remains,  Chap.  XI. 

t  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage,"  Canto  iv,  Stanza  xc,  note  47, 


191 

Jefferson  ventures  the  length  of  asserting  that  Gen.  Washington 
knew  of  Hamilton's  corrupt  and  monarchical  designs.  (Letter  to 
Mr.  Hellish,  V.  4.  p.  185.)  His  language  on  that  occasion  is — - 
"  General  Washington  has  asseverated  to  me  a  thousand  times 
his  determination  that  the  existing  government  should  have  a 
fair  trial,  and  that  in  support  of  it  he  would  spend  the  last  drop 
of  his  blood.  He  did  this  the  more  repeatedly,  because  he  knew 
Gen.  Hamilton's  political  bias  and  my  apprehensions  from  it." 
Now  it  may  be  said  that  the  words  "  political  bias"  do  not  con 
vey  the  imputation  of  a  criminal  design.  'But  on  the  previous 
page  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  thus  explains  their  meaning.  "  An- 
glomany,  monarchy,  and  separation,  these  are  the  principles  of  the 
Essex  federalists ;  Anglomany  and  monarchy  those  of  the 
Hamiltonians."  Here  we  see  that  the  words  "  political  bias" 
were  used  as  equivalent  with  the  phrase  political  principles, 
and  that  the  principles  on  which  Gen.  Hamilton  acted  were  those 
of  monarchy  and  Anglomany,  a  term  which  Mr.  Jefferson  ap 
pears  to  have  coined  in  France  for  purposes  of  calumny  in  his 
own  country.  Besides,  when  speaking  on  the  same  subject  he 
uses  synonymes  for  bias  which  establish  clearly  the  force  which 
he  intended  to  give  that  term ;  as  at  page  237,  of  the  4th  vo 
lume  : — "  And  these  declarations  he  repeated  to  me  the  oftener 
and  the  more  pointedly  because  he  knew  my  suspicions  of  Ha 
milton's  views  ;"  that  is,  that  his  "  views"  (or  bias)  were  to  in 
troduce  a  monarchy  in  the  United  States  like  that  of  England. 
In  addition,  it  is  obvious  that  bias  must  have  been  intended  to 
signify  something  grave  and  atrocious,  as  it  is  placed  as  the 
ground-work  of  Gen.  Washington's  "  thousand  and  one"  pro 
testations,  and  the  main-spring  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  sincere  and 
philosophical  apprehensions. 

There  can  then  be  no  doubt,  that  by  asserting  Washington's 
knowledge  of  Hamilton's  "  political  bias,"  Mr.  Jefferson  meant  to 
affirm  that  Hamilton  was  engaged  in  a  scheme  to  overturn,  by 
corrupting  the  legislature,  the  existing  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  to  establish  in  its  stead  a  monarchical  government, 
and  that  Gen.  Washington  knew  he  was  engaged  in  this 
scheme.  But  at  page  450,  when  laying  a  different  train  of  de 
ception,  when  endeavouring  to  prove  that  Gen.  Washington  did 
not  espouse  or  countenance  the  political  principles  of  Hamilton, 
he  contradicts  this  assertion  in  terms  as  earnest  and  unqualified 
as  those  he  had  employed  in  its  enunciation  and  repetition. 
"  Gen.  Washington  was  true  to  the  republican  charge  confided  to 
him  ;  and  has  solemnly  and  repeatedly  protested  to  me,  in  our 
conversations,  that  he  would  lose  the  last  drop  of  his  blood  in 


192 

support  of  it ;  and  he  did  this  the  oftener  and  with  the  more  ear 
nestness,  because  he  knew  my  suspicions  of  Hamilton's  designs 
against  it,  and  wished  to  quiet  them.  For  he  was  not  aware  of 
the  drift,  or  of  the  effect  of  Hamilton's  schemes"  From  this 
pointed  contradiction  it  is  evident,  that  whoever  believes  Mr. 
Jefferson's  accusations  against  Hamilton,  and  confides  in  his 
claims  to  the  credit  of  having  detected  and  defeated  them,  by 
bringing  about  "  the  revolution  of  ISOQ,"  (V.  4.  p.  316,)  must 
believe  in  a  story  which  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  has  declared  to  be 
false,  and  must  yield  to  pretensions  which  he  has  proved  to  be 
preposterous. 

However,  as  if  to  complete  this  formidable  array  of  proof 
against  the  political  integrity  of  his  slaughtered  colleague,  he 
avers  (Vol.  4.  p. 446)  that  Hamilton  "avowed  the  opinion  that  man 
could  be  governed  by  one  of  two  motives  only,  force  or  interest." 
It  appears  to  me,  I  must  confess,  that,  felonious  as  this  opinion 
may  be  in  the  eyes  of  "  a  real  Jeffersonian"  it  is  impossible  that 
a  man  of  Gen.  Hamilton's  clear  understanding  could  have  held 
any  other.  Arbitrary  governments  are  founded  on  force,  either 
actual  or  potential,  in  the  governors  ;  free  governments  rest  on 
the  interest,  real  or  supposed,  of  the  governed.  There  is  no 
other  possible  foundation  for  a  free  government  than  interest.  It 
was  because  Gen.  Washington  and  his  colleagues  of  the  conven 
tion,  thought  our  present  government  would  secure  and  promote 
the  interest  of  the  nation,  that  they  framed  and  recommended  it, 
and  for  no  other  reason  ;  and  it  was  because  a  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  came  to  the  same  conclusion,  that 
they  adopted  it.  And  it  is  not  only  matter  of  certainty  but  of 
satisfaction,  that  should  a  majority  of  the  people  be  convinced  by 
experience  that  it  fails  to  answer  the  great  end  of  its  formation, 
they  will  set  to  work  and  change  it,  so  as  to  bring  it  into  a  form  better 
calculated  to  promote  their  interest.  Why  is  it  one  of  our  favourite 
political  maxims  that  education  and  representation  should  be  co-ex 
tensive?  It  is  that  by  the  first,  the  people  will  be  taught  to  under 
stand  their  true  interest,  and  by  the  second,  be  enabled  to  secure  it. 
Yet  this  liberal,  sound  and  obvious  opinion,  is  made  the  ground 
of  a  dark  and  disgraceful  charge,  of  endless  sneers  and  ceaseless 
accusations  against  the  memory  of  Alexander  Hamilton — a  man 
whose  steps  from  boyhood  to  the  grave  were  those  of  patriotism 
and  honour. 

But  another  attempt  equally  formidable  against  the  memory  of 
Hamilton  is  found  in  a  memorandum,  which,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive,  that  an  honourable  man  would  listen  to,  much  less  re 
cord.  (Vol.  4.  pp.  511-12.)  «  January  24th,  1800,  Mr.  Smith,  a 


193 

merchant  from  Hamburg  gives  me  the  following  information. 
The  St.  Andrew's  Club  of  New- York,  (all  Scotch  tories)  gave  a 
public  dinner  lately.  Among  others  guests  Alexander  Hamilton 
was  one.  After  dinner,  the  first  toast  was,  "  the  President  of  the 
United  States."  It  was  drank  without  any  particular  approba 
tion.  The  next  was,  "  George  the  Third."  Hamilton  stood  up  on 
his  feet,  and  insisted  on  a  bumper  and  three  cheers.  The  whole 
company  rose  and  gave  the  cheers.  One  of  them,  though  a  fede 
ralist,  was  so  disgusted  at  the  partiality  shown  by  Hamilton  to  a 
foreign  sovereign  over  his  own  President,  that  he  mentioned  it  to 
a  Mr.  Schwartshouse,  an  American  merchant  at  New- York,  who 
mentioned  it  to  Smith." 

The  vagueness  and  extent  of  transmission  contrived  for  this 
story  gives  it  all  the  dignity  of  fable.  The  sceptre  of  Agamem 
non  was  not  handed  down  through  so  many  personages,  or  de 
rived  from  so  doubtful  an  original.  A  person  without  a  name 
mentions  it  Mr.  Schwartshouse,  who  tells  it  to  Mr.  Smith,  consider 
ed  every  where  the  proxy  of  Mr.  Nobody,  who  in  his  turn  men 
tions  it  to  Mr.  Jefferson  ;  and  he,  the  bitterest  enemy  Hamilton 
ever  had,  prepares  it  for  the  public ! 

If  the  least  foundation  can  be  imagined  for  this  shadow  of  a 
shade  of  a  phantom  of  a  fiction,  you  will  perceive  it  can  signify 
nothing  else  than,  that  as  the  Scotch  entertainers  paid  a  compli 
ment  to  Gen.  Hamilton's  known  national  feelings  by  toasting 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  he  returned  it  by  proposing 
the  health  of  their  King.  And  that  in  the  regular  progression 
of  drinking,  the  second  toast  was  attended  by  more  animation  or 
less  formality  than  the  first :  an  animation  in  which  the  whole 
company  are  said  to  have  participated. 

In  the  midst  of  this  silly  falsification  one  truth  stands  conspicu 
ous.  It  is,  that  while  this  splendid  genius  and  generous  patriot, 
Alexander  Hamilton,  was  retrieving  by  brilliant  forensic  exertions, 
for  the  good  of  his  family,  the  time  he  had  devoted  to  his  coun 
try,  he  was  waylaid  in  his  hours  of  refreshment  and  moments  of 
festivity  by  the  unrelenting  hatred  of  his  rival ;  and  could  not 
even  wet  his  lips  with  wine,  or  relax  his  strong  intelligence 
in  society,  without  having  poison  dropped  by  Mr.  Jefferson  into 
the  flowing  bowl,  and  mixed  with  the  sustaining  viands.  Was 
ever  such  a  state  of  things  exhibited  before  in  civilized  society  ? 
The  Duke  of  Marlborough  was  hated  by  Bolingbroke  ;  the 
great  Lord  Chatham  by  the  first  Lord  Holland  ;  and  the  sons  of 
these  political  foes,  were  steady  political  rivals.  But  these  men  ne 
ver  descended  to  invent  or  collect  silly  personal  slanders,  that  by 
keeping  them  bottled  up  for-  a  quarter  of  a  century  they  might  ac~ 

25 


194 

quire  a  certain  strength  of  mischief.  The  finest  encomium  ever 
passed  on  Marlborough  was  by  his  generous  enemy  ;  and  the 
highest  compliment  ever  bestowed  on  the  memory  of  Pitt,  was 
pronounced  by  Fox  ;  who,  if  he  ever  excelled  his?  rival,  did  so  by 
doing  justice  to  his  virtues. 

Upon  close  examination  of  this  story,  another  and  not  less 
interesting  truth  may  be  discovered.  ^It  appears  that  when 
Hamilton  rose  and  proposed  three  cheers  to  the  health  of  George 
the  third,  "  the  whole  company  also  rose  and  gave  the  cheers," 
and  that  nevertheless  one  of  the  company  was  so  disgusted  at 
Hamilton's  manner  of  drinking  the  toast,  that  he  mentioned  it 
as  evidence  of  his  shameful  partiality  for  "  a  foreign  sovereign 
over  his  own  President."  Now  Hamilton's  manner  of  drinking 
the  toast  "  George  the  third,"  was  precisely  that  in  which  this 
very  person  is  made  to  declare  that  he  himself  drank  it — that 
is,  with  "  three  cheers."  In  order  to  go  along  with  Mr.  Jefferson 
then,  we  must  believe  not  only  that  this  person  "a  federalist.," 
was  disgusted  with  Gen.  Hamilton,  but  that  he  was  disgusted 
with  himself  on  the  occasion,  and  further,  that  he  not  only  re 
probated  Gen.  Hamilton,  but  reproached  himself  to  Mr.  Schwarts- 
house,  with  having  shewn  a  disgusting  partiality  for  a  foreign 
sovereign.  Unless  we  admit  that  human  nature  deviated  from 
its  regular  course  in  this  individual,  we  must  refuse  to  believe 
that  he  said  any  thing  about  disgust  in  regard  to  Hamilton,  and 
we  must  conclude  that  he  simply  mentioned  the  facts  of  having 
dined  with  that  distinguished  man  at  the  St.  Andrew's  Club,  and 
that  the  herlth  of  the  King  of  England  was  drunk  with  marks 
of  general  hilarity.  If  there  were  any  probability  that  this  cir 
cumstance  of  disgust  was  interwoven  either  by  Mr.  Schwarts- 
house  or  Mr.  Smith,  it  would  be  excluded  by  the  assertion  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  to  the  contrary.  It  is  certain  then  that  it  was  added  by 
Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  who  hearing  an  innocent  anecdote  from 
Mr.  Smith,  "  at  a  later  date"  attached  to  it  this  circumstance  with 
a  view  of  completeing  the  tissue  of  slander  which  he  was  fabri 
cating  for  the  destruction  of  a  rival's  fame.  In  this  light,  the  an 
ecdote  is  not  only  perfectly  natural  but  infinitely  valuable.  For 
while  it  comes  "  within  the  laws  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  character,"  it 
shews  to  the  world  the  manner  in  which  he  really  employed 
those  hours  that  were  supposed  to  be  sacred  to  (Vol.  1.  p.  8) 
"learning,  philosophic  inspiration,  and  generous  devotion  to 
virtue." 

As  Gen.  Lee  was  allied  to  Gen.  Hamilton  by  the  warmest 
friendship,  by  kindred  talents,  and  congenial  patriotism,  exemp 
tion  from  similar  vilification,  though  desirable  to  his  friends,  could 
not  have  been  creditable  to  his  reputation. 


195 


LETTER  XV. 

AMONG  the  great  officers  to  whom  the  people  of  the  United 
States  are  indebted  for  the  success  of  their  Re  volution ,  and  of 
their  present  form  of  government,  none  were  more  faithful,  and 
few  were  more  useful,  friends  of  their  country,  than  Gen.  KNOX. 

In  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  having  commenced  his  military 
career  as  a  volunteer  at  the  Battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  he  fought  his 
way  to  the  rank  of  Major  General.  He  commanded  in  chief  the 
Artillery,  and  serving  for  the  most  part  under  the  eye  of  Wash 
ington,  engaged  in  a  remarkable  degree  his  official  confidence 
and  personal  friendship.  Upon  the  resignation  of  Gen.  Lincoln 
as  Secretary  of  War,  the  acknowledged  capacity  and  valuable 
experience  of  Gen.  Knox,  induced  the  Congress,  to  appoint  him 
to  that  important  station.  In  this  situation  he  was  found  by 
President  Washington  when  he  assumed  the  direction  of  the  new 
government,  and  his  judgment  and  regard  were  both  satisfied  by 
the  consent  of  Gen.  Knox  to  continue  in  it.  Though  he  did  not 
possess  profound  erudition  or  rare  acquirements,  his  qualifications 
were  of  much  higher  value.  He  was  a  man  of  sound  judgment, 
honourable  principles,  useful  knowledge,  and  perfect  candour. 
The  visionary  projects  or  interested  schemes  of  more  ingenious 
minds,  were  shivered  and  dissipated  by  contact  with  the  manly 
patriotism  and  strong  sense  of  Gen.  Knox.  Hence  it  appears, 
that  in  the  Cabinet  consultations,  of  which,  Mr.  Jefferson's  trans 
lation  only  is  preserved,  Gen.  Knox  frequently  dissented  from  the 
speculations  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  generally  coincided  in 
opinion  with  the  minister  of  finance.  This  unpardonable  and  an- 
tigallican  offence  was  never  forgiven  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  entail 
ed  on  Gen.  Knox  the  foulest  vituperation,  which  resentment 
could  suggest  to  a  mind,  expert  in  the  inventions  of  slander,  and 
habituated  to  the  secret  indulgencies  of  malice. 

The  following  extracts  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  Memoranda,  re 
vised  and  corrected  after  a  prematur  of  twenty-five  years,  afford 
evidence  of  the  terms  which  the  Sage  of  Monticello  thought 
suitable  to  the  character  of  Gen.  Knox.  (Vol.  4.  p.  473.)  "  Knox 
for  once  dared  to  differ  from  Hamilton,  and  to  express,  very  sub 
missively  an  opinion."  &c.  (p.  484.)  "  Knox  subscribed  at  once 
to  Hamilton's  opinion,  that  we  ought  to  declare  the  treaty  void, 
acknowledging  at  the  same  time,  like  a  fool  as  he  is,  that  he 
knew  nothing  about  it."  Again — after  observing  that  he  him 
self,  Hamilton,  arid  Randolph,  submitted  their  opinions  in  writing 
to  the  President  on  a  certain  occasion,  he  adds,  "  I  believe  Knox's 


196 

was  never  thought  worth  ottering  or  asking  for."  (p.  491.) 
"  Knox  in  a  foolish  incoherent  sort  of  speech  introduced  the  pas 
quinade  lately  printed." — "  Knox  said  we  should  have  had  fine 
work,  if  Congress  had  been  sitting  these  last  two  months.  The 
fool  thus  let  out  the  secret.  Hamilton  endeavoured  to  patch  up 
the  indiscretion  of  this  blabber,"  &c. 

Now  if  you  are  desirous  to  ascertain  more  accurately  than  I 
can  pretend  to  explain  it,  the  precise  degree  of  merit  which  these 
flowers  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  rhetoric  signify,  it  will  be  necessary  that 
you  attend  to  the  following  testimonials  in  regard  to  the  character 
and  services  of  Gen.  Knox.     Dr.   Thacher  in   his  interesting 
Journal  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  thus  speaks  of  him.     "  Long 
will  he  be  remembered  as  the  ornament  of  every  circle  in  which 
he  moved,  as  the  amiable  and  enlightened  companion,  the  gene 
rous  friend,  the  man  of  feeling  and  benevolence  ; — his  conversa 
tion  was  animated  and  cheerful,  and  he  imparted  an  interest  to 
every  subject  that  he  touched.     In  his  gayest  moments  he  never 
lost  sight  of  dignity  ; — he  invited  confidence,  but  repelled  fami 
liarity.     His  imagination  was  brilliant,  his  conceptions  lofty  ;  and 
no  man  ever  possessed  the  power  of  embodying  his  thoughts  in 
more  vigorous  language  ;    when  ardently  engaged   they  were 
peculiarly  bold  and  original,  and  you  irresistibly  felt  in  his  society, 
that  his  intellect  was  not  of  the  ordinary  class.    Yet  no  man  was 
more  unassuming,  none  more  delicately  alive  to  the  feelings  of 
others.     He  had  the  peculiar  talent  of  rendering  all  who  were 
with  him,  happy  in  themselves ;  and  no  one  ever  more  feelingly 
enjoyed  the  happiness  of  those  around  him."    "  To  the  testimony 
of  private  friendship,  may  be  added  that  of  less  partial  strangers, 
who  have  borne  witness,  both  to  his  public  and  private  virtues. 
Lord  Moira,  who  is  now  perhaps  the  greatest  general  that  Eng 
land  can  boast  of,  has  in  a  late  publication  spoken  in  high  terms 
of  his  military  talents.     Nor  should  the  opinion  of  the  Marquis 
Chastellux  be  omitted.     "  As  for   Gen.    Knox,"  he  says,  "  to 
praise  him  for  his  military  talents  alone,  would  be  to  deprive  him 
of  half  the  culogium  he  merits,  a  man  of  understanding,  well  in 
formed,  gay,  sincere,  and  honest — it  is  impossible  to  know  with 
out  esteeming  him,  or  to  see  without  loving  him, — thus  have  the 
English  without  intention,  added  to  the  ornaments  of  the  human 
species  by  awakening  talents  where  they  least  wished  or  expect 
ed."  (pp.  589-90.)     To  this  may  be  added  the  following  extracts 
of  Letters  from  Gen.  Washington  to  Gen.  Knox — the  first  writ 
ten  when  he  retired  from  the  direction  of  the  War  Department, 
and  the  second  when  Washington  himself  was  about  to  lay  down 
the  office  of  President. — "  I  cannot  suffer  you,  however,  to  closxi 


197 

your  public  service  without  uniting  to  the  satisfaction  which  must 
arise  in  your  own  mind  from  conscious  rectitude,  assurances  of 
my  perfect  persuasion  that  you  have  deserved  well  of  your  coun 
try.  My  personal  knowledge  of  your  exertions,  while  it  autho 
rises  me  to  hold  this  language,  justifies  the  sincere  friendship 
which  I  have  borne  you,  and  which  will  accompany  you  in  every 
station  in  life."*  "  Although  the  prospect  of  retirement  is  most 
grateful  to  my  soul,  and  I  have  not  a  wish  to  mix  again  in  the 
great  world,  or  to  partake  in  its  politics,  yet  I  am  not  without  my 
regrets  at  parting  with  (perhaps  never  more  to  meet)  the  few  inti 
mates  whom  I  love.  Among  them,  be  assured,  you  are  one."t 
This  is  the  man,  who  admired  by  distinguished  foreigners  and 
unpretending  fellow-citizens,  tried  in  the  judgment,  and  stamped 
by  the  affection  of  Washington  ;  who  for  twenty  years,  without 
interruption  or  abatement,  was  high  in  the  military  and  civil  trust 
of  the  United  States,  is  handed  down  to  posterity  by  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  as  a  parasite,  a  fool,  and  a  blabber. 

About  four  years  after  his  resignation  as  Secretary  of  War, 
Gen  Knox,  who  had,  too  long  for  the  advantage  of  his  own  af 
fairs,  attended  to  those  of  his  country,  experienced  the  misfortune 
to  become  insolvent,  and  to  find  himself  in  the  decline  of  life,  re 
duced  to  poverty.  This  calamity,  so  far  from  exciting  the  com 
miseration  of  his  former  colleague,  Mr.  Jefferson,  is  related  by  him 
to  Mr.  Madison  in  the  following  heartless  language,  (Vol.  3.  p. 
406)  "  Gen.  Knox  has  become  bankrupt  for  four  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars  and  has  resigned  his  military  commission.  He  took 
in  Gen.  Lincoln  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  which 
breaks  him.  Col.  Jackson  also  sunk  with  him."  So  that  in 
1799,  Mr.  Jefferson  thought  if  a  man  suffered  a  pecuniary  loss  as 
surety  or  creditor  of  his  friend,  he  might  be  said  to  have  been 
taken  in  by  that  friend — 

"  Nescia  mens  hominum  fati  sortisque  futurae." 

However,  after  this  "  fool,  blabber,  and  bankrupt,"  was  dead, 
the  wise,  philosophic,  and  diplomatic,  Mr.  Jefferson  found  it  con 
venient  to  embrace  an  opportunity  of  defrauding  his  memory  of 
credit,  in  order  to  transfer  the  spoil  to  his  own  modest  account. 
As  this  is  one  of  the  most  cruel  instances  of  the  dupery  he  prac 
tised  on  the  waning  age  and  waxing  vanity  of  Mr.  Adams,  it  is 
not  unworthy  of  particular  notice. 

It  seems  that  early  in  January,  1811,  Dr.  Rush  had  expressed 
an  interest  in  bringing  about  a  restoration  of  correspondence  be- 

*  Marshall,  Vol.  5,  p.  615.  t  Ibid.  Vol.  5.  p.  34,  Notes. 


198 

tween  these  ex-Presidents.  His  intimation  to  that  effect,  drew 
on  the  16th  of  the  same  month  a  favourable  reply  from  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  who  hearing  nothing  more  from  Dr.  Rush,  or  nothing 
conclusive,  at  least,  on  the  subject,  volunteered  a  fresh  communi 
cation  in  furtherance  of  it,  on  the  5th  of  the  following  December. 
In  this  communication  he  informs  Dr.  Rush  that  two  of  his 
neighbours  had  visited  Mr.  Adams  in  the  course  of  the  previous 
summer  j  that  they  found  him  free  in  flie  abuse  of  his  Ministers 
of  State,  saying  they  acted  above  his  control  and  often  against 
his  opinions  ;  called  them  his  masters ;  and  after  reprobating 
the  licentiousness  of  the  press  to  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  been 
exposed,  added—"  I  always  loved  Jefferson  and  still  love  him." 
This  Mr.  Jefferson  assures  Dr.  Rush  "  is  enough  for  him  ;" 
and  he  gives  (he  Doctor  full  powers  to  conclude  a  treaty,  not 
only  of  peace  and  amity,  but  of  fraternity  and  partition.  Mr. 
Adams  soon  after  sends  him  a  few  samples  of  homespun  cloth, 
and  Mr.  Jefferson  thereupon  fires  a  salute  of  reciprocating  com 
pliments. 

This  reconciliation  between  two  aged  statesmen,  who  had  both 
filled  the  highest  offices  in  the  Union,  and  had  been  rivals  in  the 
race  for  power,  has  in  it  at  first  sight,  something  very  commend 
able  and  pleasing.  But  it  turns  out  to  be  a  friendship  established 
upon  the  basis  of  that  struck  up  between  Anthony  and  Augustus, 
when  they  buried  their  mutual  animosity  in  the  common  destruc 
tion  of  their  friends ;  with  this  difference,  that  of  the  American 
Duumviri,  all  the  sacrifices  were  made  by  Mr.  Adams.  As  a  pre 
liminary,  he  resigned  his  ministers  to  execration  and  himself  to 
contempt.  For  this  sacrifice,  instead  of  a  hecatomb  of  democrats, 
Mr.  Jefferson  assigns  him  a  province  of  flattery,  a  tempting  bait 
to  a  man  of  immoderate  egotism,  though  a  cheap  equivalent  for 
one  of  infinite  assertion.  In  his  first  letter  he  persuades  Mr. 
Adams  to  write  to  him,  in  order  that — "  I  should  have  the  plea 
sure  of  knowing,  that  in  the  race  of  life,  you  do  not  keep  in  its 
physical  decline  the  same  distance  ahead  of  me,  which  you  have 
done  in  political  honours  and  achievements."  At  this  rate  the 
correspondence  jogs  along,  to  judge  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  Letters, 
cheerfully  enough,  until  the  29th  of  May,  1813.  Then,  it  seems, 
Mr.  Adams  requested  explanations  of  two  letters  written  by  Mr. 
Jefferson  to  some  third  person,  which  had  been  referred  to  by  a 
hostile  pamphleteer,  in  support  of  strictures  on  Mr.  Adams's  pub 
lic  character  and  political  sentiments.  In  answer,  Mr.  Jefferson, 
after  extenuating  the  censure  of  these  letters,  endeavours  to  show 
that  it  was  not  aimed  at  Mr.  Adams  but  at  the  federalists  gene 
rally — observing,  "  You  happen  indeed  to  be  quoted,  because 


199 

you  happened  to  express  more  pithily  than  had  been  done  by 
themselves  one  of  the  mottoes  of  the  party."  He  then  proceeds 
in  a  strain  of  deception  that  shows  the  confidence  with  which  he 
practised  on  the  feeble  senility  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  which  for 
shallow  and  extravagant  absurdity,  I  think  you  will  agree,  has 
scarcely  its  parallel  in  his  own  "  Writings." 

The  occasion  to  which  these  obnoxious  letters  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
referred,  was  this.  Mr.  Adams,  when  President,  had  received  an 
address  from  a  club  of  young  men  in  Philadelphia,  in  which  the 
fantastic  people  of  France,  and  their  fantastic  notions  of  the  infi 
nite  perfectibility  of  the  human  mind,  were  vehemently  lauded, 
as  outshining  the  wisdom  of  the  past,  and  exploding  the  value  of 
experience.  In  answering  this  important  paper,  he  had  ventured 
to  doubt  this  doctrine  of  perfection,  and  even  to  express  becoming 
respect  for  the  lessons  of  experience,  and  had  gone  so  far,  it  would 
appear,  as  to  question  whether  minds  of  "  stronger  penetration" 
and  wider  range  than  those  of  the  Jeffersonian  "  trinity,"  Bacon, 
Newton,  and  Locke,  were  likely  to  appear  on  the  stage  of  the 
world.  This  answer,  which  might  possibly  have  been  a  frosty 
reproof  of  the  pullulating  philosophers  of  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  attacked,  not  openly  and  fairly,  but  as  was  his  wont  secretly 
and  circuitously,  in  order  to  expose  Mr.  Adams,  with  whom  he 
was  competing  for  the  next  Presidency,  as  an  "Angloman"  a 
"  monocrat,"  and  an  enemy  to  the  progress  of  mental  improve 
ment.  And  this  attack  he  endeavours  to  explain. 

After  observing  that  one  of  his  letters  was  on  the  subject  of 
religion,  and  was  likely  to  provoke  the  priesthood  against  him, 
he  proceeds  to  expound  the  other.  (Vol.  4.  pp.  194,  195.)  "  The 
readers  of  my  letter  should  be  cautioned  not  to  confine  its  view  to 
this  country  alone.  England  and  its  alarmists  were  equally 
under  consideration.  Still  less  must  they  consider  it  as  looking 
personally  to  you.  You  happen  indeed  to  be  quoted,  because  you 
happened  to  express  more  pithily  than  had  been  done  by  them 
selves,  one  of  the  mottoes  of  the  party.  This  was  in  your  answer 
to  the  address  of  the  young  men  of  Philadelphia.  (See  Selection 
of  Patriotic  Addresses,  p.  198.)  One  of  the  questions,  you  know, 
on  which  our  parties  took  different  sides,  was  on  the  improvabili- 
ty  of  the  human  mind,  in  science,  in  ethics,  in  government,  &c* 
Those  who  advocated  reformation  of  institutions,  pari  passu  with 
the  progress  of  science,  maintained  that  no  definite  limits  could  be 
assigned  to  that  progress.  The  enemies  of  reform,  on  the  other 
hand,  denied  improvement,  and  advocated  steady  adherence  to 
the  principles,  practices,  and  institutions  of  our  fathers,  which 
they  represented  as  the  consummation  of  wisdom,  and  acme  of 


200 

excellence,  beyond  which,  the  human  mind  could  never  advance. 
Although  in  the  passage  of  your  answer  alluded  to,  you  express 
ly  disclaim  the  wish  to  influence  the  freedom  of  inquiry,  you 
predict  that  will  produce  nothing  more  worthy  of  transmission  to 
posterity,  than  the  principles,  institutions,  and  systems  of  educa 
tion  received  from  their  ancestors.  I  do  not  consider  this  your 
deliberate  opinion.  You  possess  yourself  too  much  science,  not 
to  see  how  much  is  still  ahead  of  you,  unexplained  and  unexplor 
ed.  Your  own  consciousness  must  place  you  as  far  before  our 
ancestors,  as  in  the  rear  of  our  posterity.  I  consider  it  as  an 
expression  lent  to  the  prejudices  of  your  friends  ;  and  although  I 
happened  to  cite  it  from  you,  the  whole  letter  shews  I  had  them 
only  in  view.  In  truth,  my  dear  Sir,  we  were  far  from  consider 
ing  you  as  the  author  of  all  the  measures  we  blamed.  They 
were  placed  under  the  protection  of  your  name,  but  we  were 
satisfied  they  wanted  much  of  your  approbation.  We  ascribed 
them  to  their  real  authors,  the  Pickerings,  the  Wolcotts,  the 
Tracys,  the  Sedgwicks,  et  id  genus  omne,  with  whom  we  sup 
posed  you  in  a  state  of  duresse.  I  well  remember  a  conversation 
with  you  in  the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  you  nominated  to 
the  Senate,  a  substitute  for  Pickering,  in  which  you  expressed  a 
just  impatience  under  the  legacy  of  Secretaries,  which  Gen. 
Washington  had  left  you  ;  and  whom  you  seemed  therefore,  to 
consider  under  public  protection.  Many  other  incidents  shewed 
how  differently  you  would  have  acted  with  less  impassioned 
advisers,  and  subsequent  events  have  proved  that  your  minds 
were  not  together.  You  would  do  me  great  injustice,  therefore, 
by  taking  to  yourself,  what  was  intended  for  men,  who  were  then 
your  secret,  as  they  are  now  your  open  enemies.  Should  you 
write  on  the  subject,  as  you  propose,  I  am  sure  we  shall  see  you 
place  yourself  further  from  them  than  from  us.  As  to  myself,  I 
shall  take  no  part  in  any  discussions  :  I  leave  others  to  judge  of 
what  I  have  done,  and  to  give  me  exactly  that  place,  which  they 
shall  think  I  have  occupied.  Marshall  has  written  libels  on  one 
side." 

Poor  old  Mr.  Adams,  after  having  been  flattered  into  a  forget- 
fulness  of  aches  and  injuries,  or  rather  into  a  belief  that  they  were 
the  phantoms  of  his  own  suspicion,  comes  across  evidences  of 
their  reality  so  impressive,  that  his  languid  sensibility  is  awaken 
ed,  and  he  asks  how  they  are  to  be  reconciled  to  the  uniform, 
affection  and  respect,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  professes  to  have  en 
tertained  for  him.  Straightway  he  is  taken  hold  of,  and  hurried 
round  a  circle  of  compliments,  inconsistencies,  and  falsehoods, 
with  such  smooth  rapidity  of  assurance,  as  to  render  him  even 


201 

more  giddy  and  imbecile,  than  he  was  before  the  offensive  dis 
covery  had  roused  him  ;  and  he  is  then  conducted  to  his  elbow- 
chair,  with  a  caricature  of  Pickering,  and  a  calumny  of  Marshall, 
to  amuse  his  weakness,  and  employ  his  garrulity. 

This  explanation  is  chiefly  to  be  admired  for  the  boldness  with 
which  its  fictions  and  absurdities  are  "  played  off,"  on  the  en 
feebled  mind  of  Mr.  Adams.  For,  notwithstanding  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  own  infatuation,  from  the  long  practice  of  saying  whatever 
he  pleased,  and  having  whatever  he  pleased  to  say,  generally 
believed,  he  must  have  been  aware  that  no  man,  in  possession  of 
common  sense,  could  fail  to  see  through  the  imposition  he  was 
attempting  ;  and  it  is  therefore  surprising  that  this  letter  should 
have  been  left  for  publication. 

He  assures  Mr.  Adams,  that  notwithstanding  the  obnoxious 
remarks  in  the  letter  he  had  alluded  to,  were  applied  to  certain 
illiberal  and  preposterous  sentiments  in  his  answer  to  the  Philadel 
phia  address,  they  were  not  intended  for  him  in  the  least,  and 
were  in  fact  occasioned  altogether  by  an  unaccountable  succession 
of  accidents.  I  happened  to  quote  you,  but  you  happened  to 
express  more  pithily  than  any  body  else,  a  motto  of  the  party, 
and  thereupon,  I  happened  to  "  cite"  your  expression.  So  that 
although  Mr.  Adams  was  the  acknowledged  leader,  (or,  as  Mr. 
Jefferson  calls  him,  (Vol.  3.  p.  376)  « their  oracle,"*)  of  the  fede 
ral  party,  and  had  expressed  their  sentiments  more  pithily,  than 
any  other  member  of  the  party  could ;  and  although  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  his  political  rival,  and  the  leader  of  the  opposite  party, 
"  cited,"  and  reprobated  this  pithy  expression,  and  the  sentiments 
of  which  it  was  the  vehicle,  it  would  be  doing  him  the  greatest 
injustice  possible,  to  suppose  that  he  had  the  least  allusion  to  Mr. 
Adams  ;  and  would  be  very  unfair,  not  to  feel  convinced  that  his 
censures  were  intended,  first  for  the  enemies  of  Mr.  Adams,  and 
next  for  the  alarmists  of  England !  Now  it  seems  to  me,  that  if  he 
had  put  half  a  dozen  small  shot  in  old  Mr.  Adams,  instead  of  put 
ting  this  score  of  slanders  upon  him,  it  would  have  been  full  as 

*  To  prevent  cavilling  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  phrase,  "  their  oracle,"  it 
may  be  as  well  to  observe  that  although  the  word  "  oracle"  is  elsewhere  used 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  different  sense,  it  can  only  mean  here,  that  he  considered 
Mr.  Adams  the  leader  of  the  federal  party.  He  says  he  was  "  their  or-acle," 
as  we  are  told  in  the  history  of  the  Greeks,  that  the  oracle  at  Delphos  was 
"  their  oracle,"  that  is,  that  they  were  in  the  habit  of  consulting  and  being 
directed  by  the  responses  of  that  oracle.  At  page  388,  of  the  same  volume, 
Mr.  Jefferson,  speaking  of  Mr.  Adams,  says  that  Mr.  Goodhue  was  u  his 
oracle,"  or  mouthpiece,  as  the  Greeks,  when  speaking  of  Apollo,  said  that  the 
same  oracle  at  Delphos,  was  "  his  oracle,"  or  mouthpiece.  So  that  a  fair 
interpretation  of  both  these  phrases,  proves  that  JVir.  Jefferson  really  consider 
ed  Mr.  Adams,  the  Magnus  Apollo  of  the  federal  party. 

26 


202 

fair  an  excuse  to  say  that  it  was  an  entire  accident,  that  he 
happened  to  cock  his  piece,  happened  to  take  aim  at  him,  and 
happened  to  fire,  but  that  every  body  must  have  known  from 
his  heavy  load,  and  long  gun,  that  he  was  taking  a  raking  shot 
at  a  majority  of  the  people  in  New  England,  and  the  alarmists 
in  Old  England  !  This  explanation  you  must  allow,  surpasses 
his  contending  versions  of  the  famous  letter  to  Mazzei. 

But  as  if  perceiving  that  the  idea  of  the  heavy  load  wTould  not 
allay  the  smart  of  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Jefferson  proceeds  to  soothe 
him  with  an  unction  of  flattery.  He  is  assured  that  he  must  in 
all  reason,  feel  conscious  of  being  advanced  far  ahead  of  all  men 
who  had  lived  before  him,  not  excepting  Bacon,  Newton,  and 
Locke — w&o  were  all  dead  before  Mr.  Adams  was  born.  So  that 
Hamilton  ought  to  have  said  that  Mr.  Adams  was  "  the  greatest 
man  that  ever  lived" — unless  he  excepted  the  sage  of  Monticello, 
who  would  thus  have  been  placed,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
above  both  his  rivals  and  his  "  trinity." 

'  Yet  notwithstanding  this  scientific  supereminence  of  Mr.  Adams, 
Mr.  Jefferson  tells  him,  he  was  so  much  of  a  simpleton,  that  he 
mistook  his  enemies  for  his  friends,  and  submitting  to  duresse, 
fathered  a  brood  of  measures,  which  his  Cabinet  hatched,  but  he 
neither  begot  nor  approved. 

There  are  however  two  passages  in  this  letter  to  Mr.  Adams 
which  deserve  more  serious  attention,  because  they  do  happen  to 
let  out  a  glimmering  of  truth.  One  is  that  in  which  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  declares  that  the  difference  between  his  party  and  the  fede 
ralists  consisted  in  the  policy  of  the  latter  being  to  abide  by  the 
institutions  we  had  established  and  then  possessed,  while  that  of 
the  former  was  "  a  reformation  of  our  institutions,  pari  passu 
with  the  progress  of  science."  Now  if  we  take  this  to  be  the  true 
state  of  the  contest,  the  true  principle  of  difference  between  the 
parties,  we  have  to  inquire  what  becomes  of  the  "  revolution  of 
1800,"  the  successful  conduct  of  which  made  Mr.  Jefferson  a 
political  demi-god,  or  at  least  a  saint  in  the  republican  calendar  ? 
That  has  always  been  proclaimed  by  its  leader  and  his  abettors 
to  have  been  a  reformation  in  the  action  of  the  government,  not 
in  its  principles — a  restoration  or  bringing"  back  of  the  policy 
of  the  government  to  a  genuine  conformity  with  our  institutions, 
from  which  under  the  guidance  of  Hamilton's  "  cunning,"  Mr. 
Jefferson  throughout  asserts  it  was  deviating  into  monarchy. 
For  example  : — To  James  Sullivan  Mr.  Jefferson  says,  in  a  let 
ter  written  about  three  weeks  before  Gen.  Washington's  last 
presidential  term  expired,  deprecating  his  "  preponderant  popu 
larity.  (V.  3.  p.  350,)  "  That  influence  once  withdrawn,  and  our 


countrymen  left  to  the  operation  of  their  own  enlightened  good 
sense,  I  have  no  doubt  we  shall  see  a  pretty  rapid  return  of  ge 
neral  harmony,  arid  our  citizens  moving  in  phalanx  in  the  paths 
of  regular  liberty,  order,  and  a  sacrosanct  adherence  to  the  con 
stitution."  To  Mr.  Van  Buren,  at  a  much  later  period  he  says, 
(Y.  4.  p.  407,)  "  It  is  vain  then  for  Mr.  Pickering  and  his  friends 
to  endeavour  to  falsify  Gen.  Washington's  character,  by  repre 
senting  him  as  the  enemy  to  republicans  and  republican  prin 
ciples,  and  as  exclusively  the  friend  of  those  who  were  so ;  and 
had  he  lived  longer,  he  would  have  returned  to  his  ancient  un 
biassed  opinions,  would  have  replaced  his  confidence  in  those 
whom  the  people  approved  and  supported,  and  would  have  seen 
that  they  were  only  restoring,  and  acting  on,  the  principles  of  his 
own  first  administration."  Here,  not  to  notice  the  obvious  ab 
surdity  of  saying  that  Gen.  Washington  never  departed  from  a 
point  to  which  it  is  averred  he  would  have  returned,  and  that  he 
would  have  replaced  a  confidence  which  he  had  never  with 
drawn,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  principles  of  his  first  adminis 
tration  are  referred  to  as  those  of  the  constitution,  or  in  the  sanc 
timonious  language  of  the  preceding  citation,  "  a  sacrosanct  ad 
herence  to  the  constitution." 

But  if  this  is  not  sufficient  to  shew  that  the  avowed  object  and 
vaunted  effect  of  "  the  revolution  of  1800,"  was  not  "  a  reforma 
tion  of  our  institutions,"  but  a  restoration  of  the  conduct  of  the 
government  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  our  institutions,  let  us  refer 
to  Mr.  Jefferson's  account  of  it  in  his  formal  statement  of  the 
services,  upon  which  he  builds  his  claim  to  the  privilege  of  selling 
his  land  to  his  fellow-citizens  for  more  than  it  was  worth.  (V.  4. 
pp.  434-5.)  "  If  it  were  thought  worth  while  to  specify  any 
particular  services  rendered,  I  would  refer  to  the  specification  of 
them  made  by  the  legislature  itself  in  their  farewell  address  on 
my  retiring  from  the  presidency,  February  1809.*  There  is  one 
however,  not  therein  specified,  the  most  important  in  its  conse 
quences,  of  any  transaction  in  any  portion  of  my  life  ;  to  wit  the 
head  I  personally  made  against  the  federal  principles  and  pro 
ceedings  during  the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams.  Their  usur 
pations  and  violations  of  the  constitution  at  that  period,  and  their 
majority  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  were  so  great,  so  decided, 
and  so  daring,  that  after  combating  their  aggressions  inch  by 
inch,  without  being  able  in  the  least  to  check  their  career,  the 
republican  leaders  thought  it  would  be  best  for  them  to  give  up 
their  useless  efforts  there,  go  home,  get  into  their  respective  le- 

*  The  value  of  this  has  been  already  indicated.     See  Letter  XI. 


204 

gislatures,  embody  whatever  of  resistance  they  could  be  formed 
into,  and  if  ineffectual,  to  perish  there  as  in  the  last  ditch.  All, 
therefore,  retired,  leaving  Mr.  Gallatin  alone  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  myself  in  the  Senate,  where  I  then  presided 
as  Vice-President.  Remaining  at  our  posts,  and  bidding  defiance 
to  the  brow-beating  and  insults  by  which  they  endeavoured  to 
drive  us  off  also,  we  kept  the  mass  of  republicans  .in  phalanx  to 
gether,  until  the  legislatures  could  be  brought  up  to  the  charge  ; 
and  nothing  on  earth  is  more  certain,  than  that  if  myself  parti 
cularly,  placed  by  my  office  as  Vice-President  at  the  head  of  the 
republicans,  had  given  way  and  withdrawn  from  my  post,  the 
republicans  throughout  the  Union  would  have  given  up  in 
despair,  and  the  cause  would  have  been  lost  for  ever.  By  hold 
ing  on  we  obtained  time  for  the  legislatures  to  come  up  with  their 
weight ;  and  those  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky  particularly,  but 
more  especially  the  former,  by  their  celebrated  resolutions  *  saved 
the  constitution  at  its  last  gasp.  No  person  who  was  riot  a  wit 
ness  of  the  scenes  of  that  gloomy  period,  can  form  any  idea  of  the 
afflicting  persecutions  and  personal  indignities  we  had  to  brook. 
They  saved  our  country  however." 

From  this  extract  it  is  evident,  that  if  Mr.  Jefferson's  explana 
tion  to  Mr.  Adams,  in  which  explanation  he  describes  his  party, 
as  "  the  advocates  of  a  reformation  of  institutions  pari  passu 
with  the  progress  of  science,"  is  to  be  believed,  it  must  be  admit 
ted  that  this  appeal  to  the  favour  of  the  Virginia  legislature  was 
"  bottomed  on  corruption"  and  falsehood.  In  this  he  claims 
credit  for  "  making  head  personally"  against  "  the  usurpations 
and  violations  of  the  constitution"  perpetrated  by  the  federal 
party,  and  describes  himself  as  "  placed  at  the  head  of  the  re 
publican  party,  by  his  office  of  Vice-President."  By  the  same 
token,  Mr.  Adams  being  President,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
federal  party ;  so  that  while  Mr.  Jefferson  is  in  one  breath  ap 
pealing  to  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  for  a  pecuniary  recompense 
for  his  personal  exertions  in  defending 'the  constitution  against 
change  or  violation,  he  confesses  to  Mr.  Adams  that  he  never 
made  these  exertions,  but  was  on  the  contrary  endeavouring 
himself  to  bring  about  a  change  in  the  constitution,  against  the 
"  brow-beating"  federalists  who  opposed  all  his  attempts  at  inno 
vation. 

He  declares  in  his  reasons  for  asking  for  this  pecuniary  grati 
fication,  that  by  being  so  patriotic  as  not  to  resign  his  place  as 

*  This  is  modest,  considering  that  Mr.  Jefferson  was  himself  the  author 
of  the  Kentucky  resolutions ;  that  fountain  of  nullification  which  is  now 
pouring  its  bitter  waters  over  Carolina. 


205  * 

Vice-President,  in  submission  to  the  intimidating  efforts  of  the 
federalists  to  make  him  retreat  as  he  did  before  Arnold  and 
Tarleton,  and  to  resign  as  he  did  under  the  charges  of  Mr.  Ni 
cholas,  "  the  constitution  was  saved  at  its  last  gasp ;"  that  is, 
saved  from  the  "  usurpations  and  violations,"  or  changes,  at 
tempted  by  the  federalists.  But  Mr.  Adams  is  assured  that  this 
is  entirely  false,  and  that  at  this  very  time  the  dearest  object  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  and  the  party  at  the  head  of  which  he  was  placed 
as  Vice-President,  was  to  effect  a  progressive  and  unlimited  re 
formation  in  our  institutions,  avowing  that  they  not  only  "  ad 
vocated  a  reformation  of  institutions,"  pari  passu  with  the  pro 
gress  of  science,  but  "  maintained  that  no  definite  limits  could  be 
assigned  to  that  progress."  As  these  stories  eat  up  each  other  as 
completely  as  the  Kilkenny  cats  are  said  to  have  done,  tail  and 
all,  it  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  on  them.  But  by  way  of  shewing 
as  a  piece  of  natural  history,  that  the  father  of  both  felt  greater 
paternal  tenderness  for  the  mercenary  and  more  malignant  one, 
I  refer  to  his  letter  giving  an  account  of  his  authorship  of  the 
nullifying  Kentucky  resolutions. 

In  that  letter  (V.  4.  p.  344,)  he  tells  Mr.  Nicholas,  the  son, 
that  he  prepared  those  resolutions  during  the  period  in  which  as 
Vice-President  he  was  making  head  against  the  federalists  and 
defending  the  constitution  from  all  change ;  and  Riat  Mr.  Ni 
cholas,  the  father,  "  proposed  and  carried  them  through"  the 
legislature  of  Kentucky.  He  then  adds — "  I  fear,  dear  sir,  we 
are  now"  (the  letter  is  dated  December,  1821,)  "  in  such  ano 
ther  crisis,  with  this  difference  only,  that  the  judiciary  branch  is 
alone  and  single-handed  in  the  present  assaults  on  the  constitu 
tion.  But  its  assaults  are  more  sure  and  deadly,  as  from  an 
agent  seemingly  passive  and  unassuming.  May  you  and  your 
contemporaries  meet  them  with  the  same  determination  and 
effect,  as  your  father  and  his  did,  the  alien  and  sedition  laws,  and 
preserve  inviolate  a  constitution,  which,  cherished  in  all  its 
chastity  and  purity,  will  prove  in  the  end  a  blessing  to  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth." 

The  other  passage  in  this  letter  to  Mr.  Adams  is  that  in  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  says,  "  I  well  remember  a  conversation  with  you 
in  the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  you  nominated  to  the  Senate 
a  substitute  for  Pickering,  in  which  you  expressed  a  just  impa 
tience  under  "  the  legacy  of  Secretaries  which  Gen,  Washington 
had  left  you,"  &c. 

It  is  well  known  that  towards  the  close  of  Mr.  Adams's  admi 
nistration  a  rupture  took  place  between  him  and  certain  of  his 
leading  political  friends,  and  that  in  consequence  of  it  Mr.  Picker- 


ing,  his  Secretary  of  State,  either  resigned  or  was  removed  from 
office.  It  seems  that  Mr.  Jefferson,  although  "  personally  making 
head"  as  chief  of  one  party,  against  Mr.  Adams  as  leader  of  the 
other,  seized  this  occasion  of  conversing  with  Mr.  Adams,  and  of 
"  sowing  tares"  between  him  and  his  other  friends.  This  at 
tempt  had  been  made  at  an  earlier  date,  as  appears  from  a  letter 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams  upon  the  occasion  of  his  own  probable 
defeat  in  their  first  contest  for  the  presidency,  (V.  3.  p.  338,)  but 
which  was  deemed  from  its  friendly  professions  so  "  mal  apro 
pos"  (p.  348,)  by  Mr.  Madison,  that  he  refused  to  deliver  it,  and 
it  never  reached  Mr.  Adams's  hands.  That  letter,  dated  the 
28th  December,  1796,  is  filled  with  expressions  of  personal  and 
political  esteem  for  Mr.  Adams,  and  after  a  protestation  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  gratification  at  the  ill  success  of  his  competition  for 
the  presidency,  contains  this  observation  : — "  It  is  possible  indeed 
that  even  you  may  be  cheated  of  your  succession  by  a  trick 
worthy  of  the  subtlety  of  your  arch-friend  from  New- York,  who 
has  been  able  to  make  of  your  real  friends,  tools  for  defeating 
their  and  your  just  wishes."  This  "  arch-friend  from  New- 
York"  was  the  great  and  glorious  Alexander  Hamilton,  against 
whom  Mr.  Jefferson,  having  failed  to  excite  suspicions  in  the  mind 
of  President  Washington,  was  thus  early  endeavouring  to  instil 
jealousies  ift  the  breast  of  his  successor. 

However,  to  return  to  this  letter  of  explanation  to  Mr.  Adams, 
it  appears  that  it  not  only  gulled  but  delighted  him  ;  for  we  find 
him  in  a  fit  of  gratitude  at  a  later  stage  of  their  revived  correspond 
ence  actually  crowning  the  gun-boat,  dry-dock,  and  embargo,  Pre 
sident,  as  the  Neptune  of  the  United  States,  the  father  of  the 
American  navy  !  This  too  in  a  tone  of  indifference  to  the  memory 
of  Gen.  Knox,  and  that  delicacy  which  was  due  to  his  venerable 
relict  and  orphan  son,  which  proves  but  too  clearly  that  Mr.  Jef 
ferson's  suggestion  to  Mr.  Adams  to  abandon  his  former  friends — 
"place  himself  farther  from  them  than  from  us" — had  produced  its 
intended  effect.  Now  Although  a  pretty  extensive  paternity  has 
been  assigned  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  believe  it  was  never  supposed, 
even  in  Virginia,  where  the  sun  ripens  such  various  complexions, 
that  he  was  "  the  father  of  our  Navy"  !  This  is  the  exclusive 
discovery  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  he  appears  not  to  have  revealed  it 
until  his  ninety-second  year,  when  the  following  occasion  brought 
it  forth.  (V.  4.  p.  357.) 

On  the  15th  October,  1822,  Mr.  Adams  made  a  communica 
tion  to  Mr.  Jefferson  of  which  this  is  an  extract.  "  Mrs.  Knox, 
not  long  since,  wrote  to  Dr.  Waterhouse,  requesting  him  to  pro 
cure  a  commission  for  her  son  in  the  navy  ;  that  navy,  says  her 


207 

ladyship,  of  which  his  father  was  the  parent.  '  For,'  says  she, 
1 1  have  frequently  heard  Gen.  Washington  say  to  my  husband, 
the  Navy  was  your  child.'  I  have  always,"  adds  Mr.  Adams, 
"  believed  it  to  be  Jefferson's  child,  though  Knox  may  have  as 
sisted  in  bringing  it  into  the  world."  The  trivial  arid  inconse 
quent  remarks  by  which  Mr.  Adams  proceeds  to  support  this 
strange  attribution — one,  that  Hamilton's  hobby  was  the  army, 
and  the  other,  that  he  "  had  full  proof  from  Washington's  own 
lips,"  that  he  was  averse  to  a  navy — need  not  be  discussed,  inas 
much  as  a  disposition  to  cherish  one  branch  of  military  force,  is  no 
proof  of  aversion  to  the  other,  and  as  it  is  on  record  that  Gen. 
Washington  from  first  to  last  was  in  favour  of  creating  a  naval 
force,  and  in  his  last  speech  to  congress  recommended  it  thus  em 
phatically  :  "  Will  it  not,  then,  be  advisable  to  begin  without  de 
lay  to  provide  and  lay  up  the  materials  for  building  ships  of  war  ; 
and  to  proceed  in  the  work  by  degrees,  in  proportion  as  our  reve 
nues  shall  render  it  practicable  without  inconvenience  ;  so  that  a 
future  war  of  Europe  may  not  find  our  commerce  in  the  same  un 
protected  state  in  which  it  was  found  by  the  present."* 

Besides,  the  object  in  view  is  only  to  show  how  willingly  Mr. 
Jefferson  could  consent  to  divide  credit  with  "  a  fool  and  blabber," 
even  though  conscious  that  he  had  no  right  to  a  particle  of  it, 
and  provided  he  had  only  a  widow  and  an  orphan  to  contend 
with.  He  replies  to  Mr.  Adams  on  the  1st  of  November,  (p.  355) 
"  I  have  racked  my  memory  and  ransacked  my  papers  to  enable 
myself  to  answer  the  inquiries  of  your  favour  of  October  the  15th, 
but  to  little  purpose.  My  papers  furnish  me  nothing,  my  memo 
ry  generalities  only.  I  know  that  while  I  was  in  Europe,  and 
anxious  about  the  fate  of  our  seafaring  men,  for  some  of  whom, 
then  in  captivity  in  Algiers,  we  were  treating,  and  all  were  in 
like  danger,  I  formed  undoubtingly  the  opinion,  that  our  govern 
ment,  as  soon  as  practicable,  should  provide  a  naval  force  suffi 
cient  to  keep  the  Barbary  States  in  order,  and  on  this  subject  we 
communicated  together,  as  you  observe.  When  I  returned  to 
the  United  States  and  took  part  in  the  administration  under  Gen. 
Washington,  I  constantly  maintained  that  opinion  ;  and  in  De 
cember,  1790,  took  advantage  of  a  reference  to  me  from  the  first 
Congress  that  met  after  I  was  in  office,  to  report  in  favour  of  a 
force  sufficient  for  the  protection  of  our  Mediterranean  commerce. 
I  think  Gen.  Washington  approved  of  building  vessels  of  war  to 
that  extent.  Gen.  Knox  I  know  did."  He  then  goes  on  to  re 
concile  his  dry-dock  system  with  this  generation  of  the  navy,  and 

*  Marshall,  V.  5,  p.  715. 


208 

daring  from  the  dotage  of  his  correspondent,  as  Jacob  was  when 
engaged  in  a  similar  scheme,  Mr.  Jefferson  tells  Mr.  Adams,  that 
when  as  his  successor  to  the  Presidency,  he,  Mr.  Jefferson,  re 
duced  our  existing  naval  force,  and  even  sold  some  of  the  frigates, 
it  was  in  compliance  with  "  an  act  of  Congress  passed  while  you, 
(Mr.  Adams)  were  in  office."  As  if  it  had  not  been  done  by  his 
own  party,  and  in  compliance  with  his«o\vn  instigations,  calum 
nies,  and  creed. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gerry,  written  at  the  very  time  this  law  for 
reducing  the  navy  was  passed,  (January  26th,  1799.  V.  3.  p.  409) 
Mr.  Jefferson  thus  unbosoms  himself.  "  In  confutation  then  of 
these  and  all  future  calumnies,  by  way  of  anticipation,  I  shall 
make  to  you  a  profession  of  my  political  faith  ;  in  confidence  that 
you  will  consider  every  future  imputation  on  me  of  a  contrary 
complexion,  as  bearing  on  its  front  the  mark  of  falsehood  and 
calumny."  "  I  am  for  relying  for  internal  defence,  on  our  mili 
tia  solely,  till  actual  invasion,  and  for  such  a  naval  force  only  as 
may  protect  our  coasts  and  harbours  from  such  depredations  as 
we  have  experienced  ;  and  not  for  a  standing  army  in  time  of 
peace,  which  may  overawe  the  public  sentiment ;  nor  for  a  navy, 
which,  by  its  own  expenses  and  the  eternal  wars  in  which  it 
will  implicate  us,  will  grind  us  with  public  burthens  and  sink  us 
under  them." 

Now  here  is  a  solemn  confession  of  political  faith,  which  dis 
plays  the  gun-boat  system  in  its  full  deformity,  and  which,  unless 
the  Mediterranean  sea  can  be  transferred  to  the  coasts  and  har 
bours  of  the  United  States,  abjures  from  the  commencement  of 
the  year  1799,  through  all  future  time,  the  propriety  of  having  a 
naval  force,  "  sufficient  for  the  protection  of  our  Mediterranean 
commerce."  And  although  Mr.  Jefferson  assures  Mr.  Adams  that 
in  December,  1790,  he  broached,  and  afterwards  "  constantly 
maintained  the  opinion,"  that  we  ought  to  have  "  a  force  suffi 
cient  for  the  protection  of  our  Mediterranean  commerce,"  Mr. 
Gerry  was  bound  under  the  instructions  contained  in  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  letter  to  him,  to  contradict  this  assurance,  upon  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  own  authority,  and  to  denounce  it  as  an  "  imputation" 
against  Mr.  Jefferson  "  bearing  on  its  front  the  mark  of  falsehood 
and  calumny." 

So  much  for  his  "  papers,"  which  he  declares  though  "  ran 
sacked,  furnish  him  nothing."  Let  us  now  examine  his  "  me 
mory,"  which  though  "  racked,"  he  protests  yielded  "  generalities 
only."  On  the  16th  of  January,  1811,  it  furnished  with  the 
readiest  confidence  to  Dr.  Rush,  through  whose  instrumentality 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  angling  for  the  very  coalition  out  of  which 


209 

this  fraud  against  Gen.  Knox's  memory  grew,  the  following 
statement : — "  When  the  election  hetween  Burr  and  myself  was 
kept  in  suspense  by  the  federalists,  and  they  were  meditating  to 
place  the  president  of  the  Senate  at  the  head  of  the  Government, 
I  called  on  Mr.  Adams  with  a  view  to  have  that  desperate  mea 
sure  prevented  by  his  negative.  He  grew  warm  in  an  instant, 
and  said  with  a  vehemence  he  had  not  used  towards  me  before, 
"  Sir,  the  event  of  the  election  is  within  your  own  power.  You 
have  only  to  say  you  will  do  justice  to  the  public  creditors,  main 
tain  the  navy,  and  not  disturb  those  holding  offices,  and  the  go 
vernment  will  instantly  be  put  into  your  hands."  Tlie?e  stipula 
tions,  Mr.  Jefferson  says  he  declined  making,  when  Mr.  Adams 
rejoined,  "  Then  things  must  take  their  course."  Now  this  not 
only  squares  with  his  confession  of  faith  to  Mr.  Gerry,  but  shows 
that  both  Mr.  Adams,  who  anointed  him  with  this  flattery  and 
false  appropriation,  and  he  himself  while  he  was  receiving  the 
unguent,  knew  that  it  was  entirely  undeserved. 

As  to  Mr.  Adams's  part  in  this  shameful  and  ungenerous  pro 
ceeding,  it  is  to  be  remembered  in  extenuation,  that  he  was  at  the 
time  reduced  by  the  weight  of  years  to  that  grasshopper  state  in 
which  Homer  describes  certain  statesmen  of  Troy — and  that 
moreover  he  does  not  profess  to  have  "  ransacked  his  papers." — 
Mr.  Jefferson,  on  the  other  hand,  was,  as  he  declares,  his  "junior 
in  life,"  about  eleven  years,  and  had  these  letters  to  Mr.  Gerry  and 
Dr.  Rush  as  well  as  others  to  the  same  effect,  among  the  papers 
and  press  copies,  which  he  declares  he  "  ransacked."  What 
ever  difficulty  he  may  have  experienced  at  coming  at  them,  there 
can  be  none  in  forming  this  conclusion,  that  although  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  profited  by  denouncing  the  navy  and  its  advocates,  in  1799, 
he  was  glad,  in  1822,  to  accept  the  praise  of  having  fathered  and 
"  constantly  maintained  it."  But  at  this  latter  period,  he  had 
divided  the  world  of  American  glory,  (taking  to  himself  the  lion's 
share,)  with  Mr.  Adams,  and  this  important  region  was  not  to  be 
left  unoccupied.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  their  taunting  in 
difference  to  the  widow  and  the  son  of  a  brave  and  meritorious 
colleague,  it  will  be  confessed  on  all  hands,  that  such  another  fa 
ther  as  Mr.  Jefferson,  is  more  to  be  dreaded  by  our  navy  than  all 
the  fleets  of  Europe  and  all  the  storms  of  the  sea. 

Gen.  Lee,  like  Gen.  Knox,  was  a  friend  of  Gen.  Washington, 
supported  his  measures,  and  valued  his  fame ;  had,  like  Gen. 
Knox,  rendered  great  services,  and  received  little  thanks  from  his 
country.  It  is  not  surprising  then  that  Mr.  Jefferson  should  have 

27 


210 

been  prompted  by  the  same  malignity  which  we  find  induced 
him  to  defraud  and  to  stigmatise  the  memory  of  Gen.  Knox,  to 
defame  and  vilify  the  character  of  Gen.  Lee. 


LETTER  XVJ. 

,.«aadi  JOHN  JAY- 
THERE  is  associated  with  the  name  of  this  upright  statesman 
and  enlightened  jurist,  none  of  that  military  glory  which  belong 
ed  to  Washington,  Hamilton,  Knox,  and  Lee  ;  and  which  operat 
ing  painfully  on  the  memory  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  may  account  in 
some  measure  for  his  dislike  and  injustice  to  them. 

The  mellow  radiance  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  of  that  tnitis  sa- 
pientia  which  habits  of  meditation,  benevolence,  and  piety  reflect 
upon  the  character,  encircles  the  blameless  memory  of  Mr.  Jay. 
As  a  member  of  the  revolutionary  Congress,  foreign  ambassador, 
Secretary  of  State,  and  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  he 
rendered  important  services  to  his  country,  and  established  a 
claim  to  the  everlasting  veneration  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The 
ablest  state  papers  issued  by  the  old  Congress,  were  written  by 
Mr.  Jay,  and  his  essays  in  the  Federalist  are  worthy  of  being 
there. 

Soon  after  negotiating  the  famous  treaty  of  1794  with  Eng 
land,  he  yielded  to  a  sincere  love  of  retirement  and  study,  and 
having  served  his  country  efficiently  and  faithfully,  dedicated 
himself  in  modest  and  noiseless  seclusion,  to  learning,  philanthro 
py,  and  devotion.  The  evening  of  his  life  was  long  and  quiet,  and 
afforded  a  perfect  contrast  to  that  of  Messrs.  Adams  and  Jefferson. 
He  neither  belied  his  enemies,  nor  betrayed  his  friends  ;  but  prac 
tised  and  promoted  that  holy  and  consoling  religion,  which  they 
seem  to  have  made  the  subject  of  sophistical  and  deriding  specu 
lations,  dissimilar  only  in  being  second  hand  and  shallow,  to  those 
with  which  Milton  perplexes  the  leisure  of  his  impenitent  and 
tormented  spirits. 

"  Vain  wisdom  all,  and  false  philosophy." 

But  the  virtues,  abilities,  services,  and  repose  of  Mr.  Jay,  were 
no  security  against  the  malevolence  and  detraction  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  which  were  constantly  directed  against  the  noblest  objects. 
From  the  moment  the  latter  had  entrenched  himself  at  Monti- 
cello,  behind  a  rampart  of  diplomatic  chicanery,  philosophical  pie- 


211 

tensions,  and  rural  resolves,  he  appears  never  to  have  mentioned 
Mr.  Jay  without  expressions  of  dislike  and  crimination,  For 
example — In  a  letter  to  Mann  Page  (V.  3.  p.  315)  he  says, 
"  Our  part  of  the  country  is  in  considerable  fermentation,  on 
what  they  suspect  to  be  a  recent  roguery  of  this  kind.  They 
say  that  while  all  hands  were  below  deck  mending  sails,  splicing 
ropes,  and  every  one  at  his  own  business,  and  the  Captain  in  his 
cabin  attending  to  his  log-book  and  chart,  a  rogue  of  a  pilot  has 
run  them  into  an  enemy's  port.  But  metaphor  apart,  there  is 
much  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Jay  and  his  treaty."  To  Mr.  Ma 
dison  (p.  316)  "  Thus  it  is  that  Hamilton,  Jay,  &c.  in  the  bold 
est  act  they  ever  ventured  on  to  undermine  the  government,  have 
the  address  to  screen  themselves  and  to  direct  the  hue-and-cry 
against  those  who  wished  to  drag  them  into  light."  To  the  same, 
(p.  324)  "  The  whole  mass  of  your  constituents  have  condemned 
this  work,  (Jay's  treaty)  in  the  most  unequivocal  terms,  and 
are  looking  to  you  as  their  last  hope  to  save  them  from  the  effects 
of  the  avarice  and  corruption  of  the  first  agent,  (Jay)  the  revolu 
tionary  machinations  of  others,  (Hamilton  and  his  friends,  who 
were  .endeavouring,  Mr.  Jefferson  declares,  to  change  the  Repub 
lic  into  a  monarchy)  and  the  incomprehensible  acquiescence  of 
the  only  honest  man  (Gen.  Washington)  who  has  assented  to  it. 
I  wish  that  his  honesty  and  his  political  errors,  may  not  furnish  a 
second  occasion  to  exclaim,  l  curse  on  his  virtues,  they  have  un 
done  his  country.' " 

Although  these  passages  have  been  cited  before,  they  were 
then  introduced  to  shew  either  the  earnestness  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
efforts  to  excite  opposition  to  Gen.  Washington,  while  he  profess 
ed  to  him  to  be  withdrawn  from  political  discussions  altogether, 
or  to  prove  that  while  he  professed  to  be  his  friend  he  was  in 
secret  directly  or  indirectly  calumniating  him.  As  in  this  in 
stance  his  "  virtues  "  are  said  to  be  of  such  an  execrable  sort  as 
to  be  likely  to  ruin  his  country  ;  and  he  is  admitted  to  be  "hon 
est  n  exactly  in  the  sense  in  which  Anthony  repeated  "  and  Bru 
tus  is  an  honourable  man." 

In  regard  to  their  bearing  on  Mr.  Jay  it  is  needless  to  multiply 
these  citations,  as  they  express  one  unvaried  tone  of  malice  and 
slander.  But  it  is  astonishing,  even  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  "  Writings" 
to  find  how  immedicable  to  the  influence  of  time  was  this  defa 
matory  spirit  towards  Mr.  Jay. 

It  appears  that  in  the  year  1823,  a  quarter  of  a  century  at 
least  after  Mr.  Jay  had  withdrawn  from  public  affairs,  Mr.  Adams 
at  a  Fourth  of  July  dinner  under  the  freshened  recollection  of  an 
cient  friendships,  deviated  so  far  from  the  articles  of  coalition 


212 

which  he  had  entered  into  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  as,  in  the  drinking* 
the  health  of  Mr.  Jay,  to  observe,  that  accident  alone  had  pre 
vented  his  name  from  appearing  among  the  signatures  to  the  de 
claration  of  independence.  This  indiscreet  and  extra-conven 
tional  justice,  did  not  escape  the  reprehension  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 
In  a  letter  of  the  4th  of  September,  1823,  replying  to  one  from 
Mr.  Adams  of  the  15th  of  August,  which  seems  to  have  con 
tained  no  reference  whatever  to  Mr.  Jay,  he  thus  recalls  him 
with  gentle  violence  from  this  tendency  towards  truth.  (Vol.  4.  p. 
379,)  "  I  observe  your  toast  of  Mr.  Jay,  on  the  4th  of  July, 
wherein  you  say  that  the  omission  of  his  signature  to  the  decla 
ration  of  independence  was  by  accident.  Our  impressions  as  to 
the  fact  being  different,  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  mine  corrected  if 
wrong.  Jay,  you  know  had  been  in  constant  opposition  to  our 
labouring  majority.  Our  estimate  at  the  time  was,  that  he, 
Dickenson,  and  Johnson  of  Maryland,  by  their  ingenuity,  perse 
verance,  and  partiality  for  our  English  connexion,  had  constantly 
kept  us  a  year  behind  where  we  ought  to  have  been,  in  our  pre 
parations  and  proceedings." 

The  meaning  of  this  evidently  is,  that  Mr.  Jay  and  others, 
who  were  like  him  partial  to  a  renewal  of  our  suspended  connex 
ion  with  England,  had  retarded  the  "  labouring  majority,"  (in 
which  Mr.  Jefferson  classes  himself  with  Mr.  Adams)  a  year  at 
least,  in  the  declaration  of  independence  and  in  preparations  to 
maintain  it.  The  inference  attempted  is,  that  it  was  by  design 
and  not  by  accident,  that  he  omitted  to  sign  the  declaration. 
Now  as  to  Mr  Jefferson's  labours  in  this  majority,  if  we  except 
the  report  on  Lord  North's  propositions,  for  which  he  had  previ 
ously  got  credit  from  the  Assembly  of  Virginia,  and  his  part  of 
declaration  of  independence,  which  was  subsequent  to  the  season 
of  delay  he  complains  of,  his  own  account  of  his  services  gives 
us  one  report  only,  and  that  solitary  labour  it  appears,  was  thrown 
away,  for  the  report  was  not  adopted.  (Vol.  1.  p.  9.)  He  never 
appears  to  have  taken  part  in  debate.  But  this  of  itself  was  no 
proof  of  his  want  of  zeal  in  the  cause  ;  for  although  he  declares 
to  Mr.  Madison  (Vol.  4.  p.  377)  that  he  was  by  the  accident  of 
modesty  silent  on  a  particular  occasion,  and  thus  insinuates  that 
he  participated  in  the  debates  on  others,  it  is  well  known  that  he 
was  a  most  indifferent  speaker,  and  at  that  time  could  not  hope 
lo  be  heard  after  such  men  as  John  Rutledge,  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  and  John  Adams. 

But  that  he  had  been  retarded  a  year  in  his  wishes  and  exer 
tions  for  independence  by  Mr.  Jay  or  any  body  else,  is  a  state 
ment  which,  however  bold  the  assertion  may  now  appear,  can  be 


proved  to  be  as  false  as  any  other  in  his  "  Writings."  In  a  letter 
of  the  25th  of  August,  1775,  to  John  Randolph,  who  having 
held  an  office  under  the  crown  in  Virginia,  and  taking  no  part 
in  the  Revolution,  had  gone  to  England,  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  a 
member  of  Congress,  says  (Vol.  1  p.  150.) 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  am  sorry  the  situation  of  our  country  should 
render  it  not  eligible  to  you,  to  remain  longer  in  it.  I  hope  the 
returning  wisdom  of  Great  Britain,  will,  ere  long,  put  an  end  to 
this  unnatural  contest.  There  may  be  people  to  whose  tempers 
and  dispositions,  contention  is  pleasing,  and  who,  therefore  wish 
a  continuance  of  confusion,  but  to  me  it  is  of  all  states  but  one, 
the  most  horrid.  My  first  wish  is  a  restoration  of  our  just  rights  ; 
my  second,  a  return  of  the  happy  period,  when  consistently  with 
duty,  I  may  withdraw  myself  totally  from  the  public  stage,  and 
pass  the  rest  of  my  days  in  domestic  ease  and  tranquillity,  banish 
ing  every  desire  of  ever  hearing  what  passes  in  the  world.  Per 
haps  (for  the  latter  adds  considerably  to  the  warmth  of  the  for 
mer  wish,)  looking  with  fondness  towards  a  reconciliation  with 
Great  Britain,  I  cannot  help  hoping  you  may  be  able  to  contri 
bute  towards  expediting  this  good  work.  I  think  it  must  be  evi 
dent  to  yourself,  that  the  ministry  have  been  deceived  by  their 
officers  on  this  side  of  the  water,  who,  (for  what  purpose,  I  can 
not  tell)  have  constantly  represented  the  American  opposition  as 
that  of  a  small  faction,  in  which  the  body  of  the  people  took 
little  part.  This,  you  can  inform  them,  of  your  own  knowledge 
is  untrue.  They  have  taken  into  their  heads,  too,  that  we  are 
cowards,  and  shall  surrender  at  discretion  to  an  armed  force. 
The  past  and  future  operations  of  the  war  must  confirm  or  un 
deceive  them  on  that  head.  I  wish  they  were  thoroughly  and 
minutely  acquainted  with  every  circumstance,  relative  to  America, 
as  it  exists  in  truth.  I  am  persuaded,  this  would  go  far  to 
wards  disposing  them  to  reconciliation.  Even  those  in  Parlia 
ment  who  are  called  friends  to  America,  seem  to  know  nothing 
of  our  real  determinations.  I  observe,  they  pronounced  in  the 
last  Parliament,  that  the  Congress  of  1774,  did  not  mean  to 
insist  rigorously  on  the  terms  they  held  out,  but,  kept  something 
in  reserve,  to  give  up :  and,  in  fact,  that  they  would  give  up 
every  thing  but  the  article  of  taxation.  Now,  the  truth  is  far 
from  this,  as  I  can  affirm,  and  put  my  honour  to  the  assertion. 
Their  continuance  in  this  error  may,  perhaps,  produce  very  ill 
consequences.  The  Congress  stated  the  lowest  terms  they 
thought  possible  to  be  accepted,  in  order  to  convince  the  world, 
they  were  not  unreasonable.  They  gave  up  the  monopoly  and  re 
gulation  of  trade,  and  all  acts  of  Parliament  prior  to  1704,  leaving 


214 

to  British  generosity  to  render  these,  at  some  future  time,  as  easy 
to  America  as  the  interest  of  Britain  would  admit.  But  this 
was  before  bood  was  spilt.  I  cannot  affirm  but  have  reason  to 
think,  these  terms  would  not  now  be  accepted.  I  wish  no  false 
sense  of  honour,  no  ignorance  of  our  real  intentions,  no  vain 
hope  that  partial  concessions  of  right  will  be  accepted,  may  in 
duce  the  ministry  to  trifle  with  accommodation,  till  it  shall  be  out 
of  their  power  ever  to  accommodate.  If,  indeed  Great  Britain, 
disjoined  from  her  colonies,  be  a  match  for  the  most  potent  na 
tions  of  Europe,  with  the  colonies  thrown  into  their  scale,  they 
may  go  on  securely.  But  if  they  are  not  assured  of  this,  it 
would  be  certainly  unwise,  by  trying  the  event  of  another  cam 
paign,  to  risk  our  accepting  a  foreign  aid,  which,  may  perhaps,  not 
be  obtainable,  but  on  condition  of  everlasting  avulsion  from  Great 
Britain.  This  would  be  thought  a  hard  condition  to  those  who 
still  wish  for  re-union  with  their  parent  country.  I  am  sin 
cerely  one  of  those,  and  would  rather  be  in  dependence  on  Great 
Britain,  properly  limited,  than  on  any  nation  upon  earth,  or 
than  on  no  nation.  But  I  am  one  of  those,  too,  who,  rather  than 
submit  to  the  rights  of  legislating  for  us,  assumed  by  the  British 
Parliament,  and  which  late  experience  has  shewn  they  will  so 
cruelly  exercise,  would  lend  my  hand  to  sink  the  whole  Island  in 
the  ocean. 

"  If  undeceiving  the  minister,  as  to  matters  of  fact,  may  change 
his  disposition,  it  will  perhaps,  be  in  your  power,  by  assisting  to 
do  this,  to  render  a  service  to  the  whole  empire,  at  the  most  criti 
cal  time,  certainly,  that  it  has  ever  seen.  Whether  Britain  shall 
continue  the  head  of  the  greatest  empire  on  earth,  or  shall  return 
to  her  original  station  in  the  political  scale  of  Europe,  depends, 
perhaps,  on  the  resolutions  of  the  succeeding  winter.  God  send 
they  may  be  wise  and  salutary  for  us  all.  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear 
from  you  as  often  as  you  may  be  disposed  to  think  of  things  here. 
You  may  be  at  liberty,  I  expect,  to  communicate  some  things, 
consistently  with  your  honour,  and  the  duties  you  will  owe  to  a 
protecting  nation.  Such  a  communication  among  individuals, 
may  be  mutually  beneficial  to  the  contending  parties."  On  the 
29th  of  November  he  addressed  a  second  letter  to  Mr.  Randolph, 
in  which  he  expressed  himself  as  follows,  (p.  152.)  "  It  is  an  im 
mense  misfortune,  to  the  whole  empire,  to  have  a  King  of  such  a 
disposition  at  such  a  time.  We  are  told,  and  every  thing  proves 
it  true,  that  he  is  the  bitterest  enemy  we  have.  His  minister  is 
able,  and  that  satisfies  me  that  ignorance  or  wickedness,  some 
where,  controls  him.  In  an  earlier  part  of  this  contest,  our  peti 
tions  told  him,  that  from  our  King  there  was  but  one  appeal. 
The  admonition  was  despised,  and  that  appeal  forced  on  us.  To 


215 

undo  his  empire,  he  has  but  one  truth  more  to  learn ;  that,  after 
colonies  have  drawn  the  sword,  there  is  but  one  step  more  they 
can  take.  That  step  is  now  pressed  upon  us,  by  the  measures 
adopted,  as  if  they  were  afraid  we  would  not  take  it.  Believe 
me,  dear  Sir,  there  is  not  in  the  British  Empire,  a  man  who  more 
cordially  loves  a  union  with  Great  Britain  than  I  do.  But  by 
the  God  that  made  me,  I  will  cease  to  exist  before  I  yield  to  a 
connexion  on  such  terms  as  the  British  Parliament  propose  ;  and 
in  this,  I  think  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  America.  We  want 
neither  inducement  nor  power,  to  declare  and  assert  a  separation. 
It  is  will,  alone,  which  is  wanting,  and  that  is  growing  apace 
under  the  fostering  hand  of  our  King.  One  bloody  campaign 
will  probably  decide,  everlastingly,  our  future  course  ;  I  am  sorry 
to  find  a  bloody  campaign  is  decided  on." 

At  our  Legation  in  Paris,  it  is  considered  at  the  present  day, 
when  a  brisk  commerce  subsists  between  the  United  States  and 
France,  and  when  fast  sailing  packets  are  regularly  interchanged 
three  times  every  month,  that  upon  an  average  three  months,  is 
as  short  a  time  as  can  be  counted  on  for  sending  a  letter  to  the 
United  States  and  receiving  an  answer  to  it.     In  1775  and  6, 
when  navigation  was  less  improved  and  expeditious  that  it  now 
is,  when  a  war  was  raging  between  America  and  England,  and 
when  of  course  ordinary  intercourse  by  vessels  of  commerce  was 
cut  off,  seven  months  was  as  short  a  time  as  could  have  been  cal 
culated  on  for  Mr.  Jefferson's  letters  to  reach  Mr.  Randolph,  for 
Mr.  Randolph's  getting  access  to  the  British  Minister  and  closing 
in  failure  or  success  the  overture  confided  to  him,  and  for  his  an 
swer  communicating  the  result  of  his  negotiation  to  reach  Mr. 
Jefferson.     It  will  appear  therefore  that  at  least  as  late  as  the  last 
of  June.  1776,  Mr.  Jefferson  preferred  reconciliation  with  England 
to  national  independence,  "  yielded  to  no  man  in  the  British  Em 
pire"  in  "  partiality  to  our  English  connexion,"  had  not  "  the 
will"  to  bring  on  a  declaration  of  independence,  and  that  if  conse 
quently  he  attached  himself  before  that  period  to  the  "  labouring 
majority,"  who  were  intent  on  propelling  us  to  independence,  he 
was  playing  a  double  part,  was  rowing  one  way  and  looking 
another — was  providing  a  title  to  pardon  if  not  patronage  from 
the  crown,  should  our  "  English  connexion"  be  restored,  and  to 
favour  from  the  States,  should  their  independence  be  established. 
And  there  is  no  room  to  doubt,  as  well  from  his  greedy  appetite 
for  universal  and  incompatible  credit,  as  from  the  double  faced 
proceeding  we  are  now  considering,  that  if  from  an  abundance  of 
Jeffersons  and  a  want  of  Washington,  or  even  of  Hamilton, 
Knox,  and  Lee,  we  had  succumbed  to  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Jeffei- 


216 

eon  would  have  put  forward  his  claim  to  reward  for  pre-eminent 
loyalty  with  the  same  eagerness,  (and  he  might  have  done  it 
with  greater  truth)  which,  under  the  opposite  event,  he  actually 
manifested  in  asserting  a  title  to  bold  and  leading  patriotism,  and 
in  founding  on  it  his  application  for  a  pecuniary  privilege. 

But  even  should  this  plain  inference  be  disputed,  it  must  be 
conceded  that  if  "  partiality  to  our  English  connexion,"  and  not 
accident,  restrained  Mr.  Jay  from  signing  the  declaration,  it  was 
accident  alone  which  induced  Mr.  Jefferson  to  sign  it.  It  does 
not  appear  from  any  thing  which  ever  proceeded  from  Mr.  Jay's 
pen,  that  while  he  was  a  member  of  the  Revolutionary  Congress, 
he  was  corresponding  as  late  as  November,  1775,  with  a  gentle 
man  in  London  in  the  employment  and  confidence  of  the  British 
Government,  for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  a  declaration 
of  independence,  and  of  bringing  about  a  renewal  of  "  our  Eng 
lish  connexion."  If  he  did  at  any  time  urge  reflection  or  advise 
delay,  in  reference  to  the  irrevocable  step  of  independence,  it  was 
no  doubt  from  motives  of  patriotism  and  prudence,  and  instead  of 
retarding  "  preparations,"  was  in  favour  of  retarding  "  proceed 
ings"  until  adequate  preparations  could  be  made  to  support  them, 
and  not  with  any  view  to  the  result  of  a  private  negotiation  with 
the  public  enemy. 

It  would  indeed  seem,  as  somewhat  characteristic  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  that  a  sort  of  chastising  infatuation  directed  his  slanders, 
making  him  falsely  ascribe  to  others,  those  very  motives  to  the 
influence  of  which  his  conscience  taught  him,  that  he  himself 
was  but  too  liable.  The  repetition  of  this  process,  by  exposing 
its  iniquity  at  last  defeats  its  purpose,  and  enables  truth  to  over 
come  by  its  essential  virtue  the  art  of  falshood.  In  the  present 
case,  while  it  vindicates  the  many  victims  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  in 
justice,  it  will  leave  upon  his  own  name  the  stains  which  he  en 
deavoured  to  attach  to  the  memory  of  Gen.  Lee,  and  to  his  illus 
trious  friends,  comrades,  and  compatriots. 


LETTER  XVII. 
RICHARD    HENRY    LEE. 

FROM  what  has  been  said  and  written  of  this  distinguished 
man,  it  appears  that  from  the  commencement  of  our  revolution- 
ary  struggles  to  their  end;  he  was  for  patriotism,  statesmanship, 
and  oratory,  regarded  as  the  Cicero  of  his  country.  He  was  re- 


217 

markable  even  "amidst  the  crowd  of  patriots"  for  a  sensitive  and 
impatient  love  of  liberty ;  and  this  he  encouraged  and  inflamed 
by  a  fond  contemplation  of  those  bright  and  melancholy  exam 
ples,  which  the  victims  of  ancient  and  modern  tyranny  have  left 
in  the  characters  of  Phocion,  of  Cato,  of  Sidney,  and  of  Kussel. 
This  gave  to  his  classical  and  chaste  elocution,  a  tone  of  depth 
and  inspiration,  which,  set  off  as  it  was  by  a  majestic  figure,  a 
noble  countenance,  and  a  graceful  delivery,  charmed  while  it 
roused  or  convinced  his  auditory.  Though  he  <pever  poured 
down  upon  agitated  assemblies,  a  cataract  of  mingled  passion  and 
logic  like  Patrick  Henry,  yet  he  visited  the  excited  attention  and 
enchanted  fancy  of  his  hearers,  with  a  regulated  flow  of  harmo 
nious  language,  generous  sentiment,  and  lucid  argument,  which 
like  the  stream  of  a  far-descended  flood,  had  more  of  the  force 
than  the  noise  of  a  torrent. 

In  his  personal  character,  he  was  just,  benevolent,  and  high- 
spirited  ;  domestic  in  his  tastes,  and  too  proud  to  be  ambitious  of 
popularity. 

.  Though  riot  positively  slandered  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  he  is  treated 
with  a  degree  of  injustice,  that  nothing  but  the  force  and  pre-emi 
nence  of  his  merit  can  account  for.  For  they  were  never  rivals; 
Mr.  Lee,  as  long  as  he  remained  on  the  public  stage,  always  over 
topping  Mr.  Jefferson  in  estimation,  both  in  Virginia  and  in  Con 
gress  ;  and  he  died  about  two  years  before  Mr.  Jefferson  became 
Vice  President.  This  superiority  is  manifest  from  the  fact  of  his 
having  been  chosen  one  of  the  first  delegates  to  the  first  Congress, 
from  his  name  appearing  on  almost  all  the  important  committees 
of  that  body,  from  his  having  been  selected  by  the  Virginia  dele 
gation  for  the  task  of  moving  the  declaration  of  independence ; 
and  it  is  accounted  for  by  his  passionate  love  of  liberty,  his  un 
compromising  patriotism,  his  captivating  eloquence,  and  his  fame 
for  wisdom, 

Mr.  Jefferson  assails  his  memory  chiefly  by  detraction  and 
implication  ;  by  connecting  his  name  sometimes  with  insufficient 
praise,  at  others  with  disreputable  circumstances.  Thus,  when  he 
mentions  Mr.  Lee  commendably.  it  is  simply  as  one  undistinguish 
ed  among  a  throng  of  popular  leaders,  as  in  Vol.  1,  p.  5.  "  The 
lead  in  the  house,  on  these  subjects,  being  no  longer  left  to  the 
old  members,  Mr.  Henry,  R.  H.  Lee,  F.  L.  Lee,  and  three  or  four 
others,  whom  I  do  not  recollect,  and  myself,  &c."  and  p.  7,  "Our 
other  patriots,  Randolph,  the  Lees,  Nicholas,  and  Pendleton, 
stopped  at  the  half-way  house  of  John  Dickenson,"  <fcc.  In  short, 
if  we  believe  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Lee  was  sometimes  his  equal  in 
ability,  in  zeal  and  boldness,  never.  Of  rourse,  in  a  li*t  ho  re- 

2.8 


218 

membered  to  have  read  of  patriots  prescribed  by  the  crown,  he 
recollected  his  own  name,  but  not  that  of  Mr.  Lee.  In  this  spirit 
of  disparagement,  when  he  comes  to  observe  that  the  draught  of 
an  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  prepared  by  Mr.  Lee, 
was  not  adopted  by  Congress,  he  says  simply  that  it  was  "  dis 
approved  and  recommitted."  But  when  the  same  fate  befel  his 
own  draught  of  a  declaration  of  the  causes  of  our  taking  up 
arms,  he  says,  "  it  was  too  strong  for  Mr.  Dickenson,"  and 
insinuates  thft  Congress  was  so  indulgent  to  Mr.  Dickenson,  that 
it  was  entirely  with  a  view  to  gratify  him,  that  his  draught  was 
preferred  to  Mr.  Jefferson's.  The  fact  however  is,  that  all  the 
papers  prepared  by  Mr.  Lee,  were  thought  too  highly  tinctured 
with  resentment  and  independence,  for  that  early  stage  of  the 
contest ; — as  is  mentioned  by  Marshall,  in  regard  to  the  draught 
of  a  petition  to  the  king  :*  while,  for  Mr.  Jefferson's  high- 
mettled  patriotism,  we  have  nothing  but  the-thread  bare  authori 
ty  of  his  own  assertion. 

The  following  instance  of  his  injustice  to  Mr.  Lee  is  proof  that 
his  wit  was  less  dramatic  than  malicious.  (Vol.  1.  p.  8.)  "  On  the 
24th,  a  Committee,  which  had  been  appointed  to  prepare  a  de 
claration  of  the  causes  of  taking  up  arms,  brought  in  their 
report,  (drawn  I  believe,  by  J.  Rutledge,)  which  not  being  liked, 
the  House  recommitted  it,  on  the  26th,  and  added  Mr.  Dickenson 
and  myself  to  the  Committee.  On  the  rising  of  the  House,  the 
Committee  having  not  yet  met,  I  happened  to  find  myself  near 
Governor  W.  Livingston,  and  proposed  to  him  to  draw  the  paper. 
He  excused  himself,  and  proposed  that  1  should  draw  it.  On 
my  pressing  him  with  urgency,  '  We  are  yet  but  new  acquain 
tances,  Sir,'  says  he,  '  why  are  you  so  earnest  for  my  doing  it  ?-' 
"  Because,"  said  I,  "  I  have  been  informed  that  you  drew  the 
address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  a  production  certainly  of 
the  finest  pen  in  America."  l  On  that,'  says  he  '  perhaps,  Sir, 
you  may  not  have  been  correctly  informed/  I  had  received  the 
information  in  Virginia,  from  Col.  Harrison,  on  his  return  from 
that  Congress.  Lee,  Livingston,  and  Jay,  had  been  the  com 
mittee  for  that  draught.  The  first  drawn  by  Lee,  had  been 
disapproved  and  recommitted.  The  second  had  been  drawn  by 
Jay,  out  being  presented  by  Governor  Livingston,  had  led  Col. 
Harrison  into  the  error.  The  next  morning,  walking  in  the  hall 
of  Congress,  many  members  being  assembled,  but  the  house  not 
yet  formed,  I  observed  Mr.  Jay,  speaking  to  R.  H.  Lee,  and  lead 
ing  him  by  the  button  of  his  coat  to  me,  1 1  understand,  Sir/ 

*  Vol.  4.  p.  627. 


219 

said  he  to  me,  '  that  this  gentleman  in  formed  you  that  Governor 
Livingston  drew  the  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain.'  I 
assured  him  al  once,  that  1  had  not  received  that  information 
from  Mr.  Lee,  and  that  not  a  word  had  ever  passed  on  the  sub 
ject  between  Mr.  Lee  and  myself ;  and  after  some  explanations, 
the  subject  was  dropped.  These  gentlemen  had  had  some 
sparrings  in  debate  before,  and  continued  ever  very  hostile  to  each 
other." 

As  the  spirit  of  a  dialogue  like  this,  when  committed  to  paper, 
depends  entirely  on  the  perfect  accuracy  of  its  relation  ;  and  as  in 
the  beginning  of  his  memoir,  (Vol.  1.  p.  1.)  Mr.  Jefferson  acknow 
ledges  the  lapse  of  at  least  forty-five  years,  between  the  occurrence 
of  this  conversation,  and  the  writing  his  record  of  it ;  I  am  to  be 
understood  as  disputing  the  propriety  of  his  fiction,  rather  than 
the  truth  of  his  statement. 

Its  marvellousness  is  apparent,  from  at  least  three  circum 
stances  ;  the  high-spirited  temper  of  Mr.  Lee ;  the  proverbial 
gentleness  of  Mr.  Jay,  and  the  good  manners  of  both.  Here  are 
two  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the  first  Congress — that 
august  assembly,  every  member  of  which  felt  the  destiny  of  his 
country  weighing  on  his  shoulders  ;  who  had  sparred  so  much 
in  debate,  as  to  become  very  hostile  to  each  other ;  when  all  at 
once,  one  of  them,  the  milder  of  the  two,  seizes  the  other  1  y  the 
button  of  the  coat,  and  leads  him  off  to  a  third  member,  whom  he 
requests  peremptorily  to  declare  whether  his  captive  colleague  had 
not  made  a  certain  false  statement  to  him.  This  third  member, 
from  a  benevolent  apprehension  that  the  button-led  gentleman 
may  be  caned  on  the  spot,  in  the  presence  of  "  many  members," 
hastens  to  reply,  tells  the  angry  interrogator  "  at  once,"  that  he 
had  received  no  such  statement  from  his  unhappy  colleague, 
and  so  far  from  it,  that  not  a  word  on  the  subject  had  been 
exchanged  between  them.  Can  any  thing  be  more  incredible 
than  this  ?  Is  it  possible  that  Mr.  Jay  would  have  taken  any 
member,  towards  whom  he  entertained  a  reciprocal  hostility,  by 
the  button  of  his  coat,  and  have  led  him  off  through  the  hall,  to 
arraign  him  before  another  member,  on  a  charge  of  falsehood  ? 
Is  it  probable,  or  even  possible,  that  Mr.  Lee  would  have  suffered 
himself,  in  the  same  temper  of  hostility,  to  be  thus  snubbed  and 
conducted  ?  Does  not  the  supposition  violate  every  probability 
arising  from  human  nature  and  social  habits  1  Admitting  that 
Mr.  Jay  did  suppose  Mr.  Lee  had  reported  to  Mr.  Jefferson  that 
Mr.  Livingston  was  the  writer  of  the  address  in  question,  and 
that  he  resented  this  eironeous  report  as  a  personal  injury,  would 
he  not,  in  proceeding  to  redress  it,  either  have  demanded  of  Mr, 


^  220 

Lee  whether  he  did  or  did  not  make  that  statement,  or  have 
applied  to  Mr.  Jefferson  separately,  to  know  whether  he  had 
asserted  that  Mr.  Lee  did  make  it  ?  But  by  Mr.  Jefferson's 
account,  the  meek  and  conscientious  Mr.  Jay,  neither  applied  to 
the  person  reported  to  have  done  him  injustice,  for  an  avowal  or 
disavowal  of  the  act,  nor  to  the  individual  represented  to  have 
witnessed  it,  for  a  correction  or  confirmation  of  the  report,  but 
seized  the  suspected  perpetrator  of  this  enormous  offence  in  the 
Hall  of  Congress,  and  led  him  up  to  the  supposed  witness.  After 
finding  himself  entirely  in  the  wrong,  in  exhibiting  this  indecent 
anxiety  about  his  reputation,  he  makes  no  apology  for  his  gross 
misbehaviour,  but  retires,  breathing  a  fiercer  spirit  of  enmity  and 
resentment,  than  that  in  which  he  had  so  rudely  advanced. 

Whoever  believes  this  story,  must  also  believe  that  both  Mr. 
Lee  and  Mr.  Jay,  were  strangers  to  the  feelings  and  manners  of 
gentlemen,  although  they  were  known  to  be  two  of  the  most 
polished  and  enlightened  men  in  the  United  States. 

As  there  was  probably  some  slight  foundation  for  this  anecdote, 
inasmuch  as  the  spider  must  have  something  on  which  to  sus 
pend  his  web,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  suggest  what  might  have 
been  the  facts  outof  which  the  slander  was  concocted.  The 
probability  is  that  ]$r.  Jefferson  receiving,  as  he  says  he  did,  the 
impression  from  Col.  Harrison,  that  Mr.  Livingston  was  the 
author  of  the  address,  had  communicated  it  as  a  fact,  to  Mr. 
Livingston  and  to  other  members,  and  that  in  consequence  of 
the  more  or  less  extensive  prevalence  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  error  in 
the  matter,  Mr.  Jay  felt  himself  called  on  to  justify  his  own  pre 
vious  statements  in  regard  to  it.  For  though  he  was  a  man  of 
too  much  dignity  to  be  strenuous  in  laying  claim  to  any  little 
credit  of  this  kind,  he  was  also  a  man  of  too  much  purity  to  rest 
quiet  under  the  suspicion  of  falsehood.  To  relieve  himself  from 
an  uneasiness  of  this  sort,  let  us  see  how,  as  a  man  of  sense 
and  good  breeding,  he  was  to  proceed.  Certainly  not  by  flying 
headlong  at  Mr.  Lee,  and  dragging  him  before  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  without  inquiring  previously  of  either  whether  Mr.  Lee 
had  wronged  him.  This  would  have  been  exposing  him 
self  for  no  earthly  object  to  the  resentment  and  contempt 
of  Mr.  Lee,  as  well  as  to  the  ridicule  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  His 
mode  of  proceeding  would  have  been  either  positively  to  repeat 
the  assertion  that  he  did  write  the  address,  or  to  obtain  the  testi 
mony  of  some  gentlemen  who  not  only  knew,  but  would  be 
admitted  to  know,  that  Mr.  Livingston  was  not  the  author  of  it, 
and  that  he  Mr.  Jay  was.  As  the  Committee,  who  reported  the 
address,  consisted  of  Mr.  Lee,  Mr.  Livingston  and  Mr.  Jay,  this 
competent  gentleman  could  only  be  Mr.  Lee  or  tylr.  Livingston. 


Mr.  Lee  was  not  concerned  in  the  advantage  of  the  claim,  while 
Mr.  Livingston  was  to  receive  all  its  equivocal  benefit.  Delicacy 
and  discretion,  would  thus  concur  in  inducing  Mr.  Jay  to  prefer 
a  resort  to  Mr.  Lee.  He,  therefore,  with  the  familiarity  which 
their  official  relationship,  and  the  nature  of  his  object  inspired, 
requested  Mr.  Lee,  to  set  his  colleague  right  in  this  business,  and 
thus  to  destroy  the  injurious  rumour  at  its  source,  within  the  hall 
of  Congress.  Of  course,  when  he  approached  Mr.  Jefferson  for 
this  purpose,  he  was  glad  to  have  Mr.  Lee  at  hand  to  refer  to,  and 
no  doubt  said  to  the  former — "  I  understand  Sir,  that  you  have 
asserted  that  the  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  was  writ 
ten  by  Mr.  Livingston  :" —  so  that  the  haste  with  which  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  explained,  was  not  so  much  out  of  any  apprehension  for  Mr- 
Lee's  safety,  as  might  at  first  sight  appear. 

This  version,  which  reconciles  the  affair  to  moral  probabilities, 
derives  additional  verisimilitude  from  another  circumstance  in  Mr. 
Jefferson's  statement,  that  is,  if  that  statement  be  so  far  admitted 
to  be  true,  as  to  require  refutation.  He  says,  when  he  told  Mr. 
Livingston  he  understood  he  wrote  the  address,  adding,  "  I  con 
sider  it  a  production  certainly  of  the  finest  pen  in  America,"  that 
Mr.  Livingston,  instead  of  replying  directly  and  clearty,  "  I  as 
sure  you  I  did  not  write  it,"  or  "  It  was  written  by  Mr.  Jay,"  made 
this  hesitating  and  equivocal  answer — "  On  that  perhaps,  sir,  you 
may  not  have  been  correctly  informed."  This  equivocal  reply 
could  not  fail  to  reach  Mr.  Jay,  and  to  direct  him  more  decidedly 
to  refer  to  Mr.  Lee.  It  would  however  be  extremely  unfair  to 
the  character  of  Governor  Livingston,  to  impute  to  him,  on 
ground  so  unsafe  as  Mr.  Jefferson's  memoranda,  this  unmanly 
and  illiberal  ambiguity. 

The  explanation  here  offered  involves,  in  regard  to  one  point, 
a  construction  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  language  that  may  be  disputed. 
He  says — "  I  observed  Mr.  Jay  speaking  to  R.  H.  Lee  and  lead 
ing  him  by  the  button  of  his  coat  to  me."  Now,  admitting,  for 
the  sake  of  argument,  his  statement  with  respect  to  the  temper 
and  purpose  of  Mr.  Jay  at  the  time  he  was  thus  speaking  to  Mr. 
Lee,  he  must  of  necessity  be  understood  to  have  been  inquiring 
whether  Mr.  Lee  had  or  had  not  "  informed  Mr.  Jefferson  that 
Governor  Livingstongjjrew  the  address  to  the  people  of  Great 
Britain."  Of  this  inquiry  the  necessary  consequence  was,  that 
Mr.  Lee  returned  an  answer  in  the  negative  or  the  affirmative. 
Suppose  then  that  he  answered — "  No,  I  did  not  inform  Mr. 
Jefferson  that  Governor  Livingston  drew  the  address  to  the 
people  of  Great  Britain."  Is  it  possible  to  conceive  that  Mr.  Jay 
would  have  instantly  led  him  up  to  Mr.  Jefferson  and  said  "  I 
understand,  sir,  that  this  gentleman  informed  you  that  Governor 


222 

Livingston  drew  the  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  T 
Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  that  Mr.  Lee  answered,  "  Yes,  1 
did  tell  Mr.  Jefferson  so" — besides  that  there  would  then  have 
been  no  occasion  for  the  appeal  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  how  could  he 
have  declared  to  Mr.  Jay  that  he  had  not  received  that  infor 
mation  from  Mr.  Lee,  and  that  not  a  word  had  ever  passed  on 
the  subject  between  Mr.  Lee  and  himself?  It  is  inconsistent 
with  common  sense  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Lee  would  say,  that  he 
had  made  this  false  and  offensive  assertion  when  he  had  not 
made  it,  and  is  besides  incompatible  with  the  recreant  exhibition 
here  made  of  him  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  Upon  the  whole  then,  it 
appears  that  the  truth  in  all  probability  was  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  set  about  this  false  report,  and  was 
confronted  by  Mr.  Jay  with  Mr.  Lee  in  order  to  correct  it,  and 
that  the  confusion  with  which  he  was  himself  affected  at  the 
time,  left  a  sting  in  his  excessive  self-love,  which,  in  addition  to 
his  general  intolerance  of  superior  merit,  festered  into  unforgiving 
enmity  towards  each  of  these  illustrious  men. 

The  most  flagrant  evidence  of  his  unfairness  to  Mr.  Lee  is 
afforded  by  the  fact  that  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Wells,  (Vol.  1.  p.  94,) 
he  gives  an  account  of  the  circumstances  attending  both  the  mo 
tion  for  a  declaration  of  independence,  and  the  adoption  of  the 
declaration  itself,  and  though  his  letter  covers  six  large  octavo 
pages,  never  once  mentions  the  name  of  Mr.  Lee  ! 

It  has  been  already  intimated  that  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  con 
ceived  God  to  be  "  either  matter  or  nothing,"  was  apt  to  employ 
the  most  devotional  language  in  conveying  the  most  incredible 
assertions.  As  examples,  you  may  recollect  that  in  presenting 
his  portrait  of  Gen.  Washington  to  Dr.  Jones,  and  affirming  his 
belief  that  Washington  was  throughout  his  administration  pre 
paring  his  countrymen  for  a  gradual  and  easy  submission  to  mo 
narchy,  he  swears  down  the  disbelief  of  the  Doctor  in  the  fol 
lowing  "  sacrosanct"  terms  : — "  These  are  my  opinions  of  Gen. 
Washington,  which  I  would  vouch  at  the  judgment- seat  of 
God."  Again,  in  order  to  give  a  sort  of  importance  to  the  ridi 
culous  anecdote  respecting  Hamilton's  opinion  of  the  English 
constitution,  he  introduces  it  with  the  following  solemn  attesta 
tion.  (Vol.  4.  p.  450.)  "  In  proof  of  this^J  will  relate  an  anec 
dote,  for  the  truth  of  which  I  attest  the  GoS  who  made  me." 

So,  in  professing  to  relate  circumstantially  to  Mr.  Wells  the 
proceedings  in  Congress  on  the  motion  for  independence,  he 
makes  reference  to  a  document  containing,  as  he  says,  "  Notes 
taken  by  himself  at  the  time  of  what  was  passing  on  that  memo 
rable  occasion  ;"  and  in  order  to  suppress  amazement  at  his 


223 

omission  of  ihe  name  of  the  man  who  moved  that  "  memorable" 
proposition,  he  tells  Mr.  Wells,  (V.  1.  p.  96,)  "  I  will  give  you 
some  extracts  from  a  written  document  on  that  subject,  for  the 
truth  of  which  I  pledge  myself  to  heaven  and  earth."  As  no 
one  at  that  time  was  likely  to  question  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  respecting  an  event  with  which  he  was  known  to  have 
been  familiaj,  that  assertion  founded  on  contemporary  notes, 
and  that  event  unconnected  with  the  policy  of  his  administration 
or  the  conduct  of  his  party,  this  unnecessary  adjuration  betrays 
a  consciousness  of  defect  in  the  statement  placed  under  its  con 
voy.  Consistently  with  this  inference,  the  first  of  his  extracts 
commences  in  these  words  : — "  Friday,  June  7th,  1776.  The 
delegates  from  Virginia  moved,  in  obedience  to  instructions  from 
their  constituents,  that  the  Congress  should  declare  that  these 
United  States  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent 
States,"  &c.  In  order  to  see  at  a  glance  the  difference  between 
this  and  a  fair  account  of  the  same  transaction,  it  will  only  be 
necessary  to  refer  to  Marshall,  who  after  some  preliminary  ob 
servations  says, 

"  The  following  resolution  was  moved  by  Richard  Henry 
Lee  and  seconded  by  John  Adams." 

It  is  true  that  the  Virginia  legislature  had  instructed  their  de 
legates  to  bring  forward  a  resolution  to  this  effect,  but  it  is  in  the 
highest  degree  invidious  in  giving  an  account  of  so  great  and 
perilous  a  step  to  suppress  the  name  of  the  mover,  and  to  depart 
from  that  particular  so  far,  as  to  state  that  the  whole  delegation 
moved  the  resolution. 

The  truth  is.  as  there  would  seem  to  have  been  two  suc 
cessive  delegations  of  that  momentous  duty,  one  from  the  Vir 
ginia  legislature  to  their  delegates  in  Congress,  and  the  other 
from  the  body  of  the  delegation  to  Mr.  Lee,  if  it  was  fair  to  at 
tribute  the  motion  which  this  bold  and  eloquent  statesman  ac 
tually  made,  to  his  immediate  constituents,  it  was  just  to  refer  it 
from  them  to  their  immediate  constituency,  and  to  have  said  that 
on  the  7th  June,  1776,  the  legislature  of  Virginia  made  the  mo 
tion.  If  Mr.  Lee  was  but  an  agent  for  the  transmission  of  this 
proposition,  so  were  his  immediate  employers  ;  and  if  the  re 
trospection  were  justifiable  in  regard  to  him,  it  was  also  proper 
with  reference  to  them.  But  this  besides  being  obviously  absurd, 
would  have  removed  Mr.  Jefferson  from  all  connexion  with  this 
event,  whereas  the  invidious  plan  which  he  adopted,  while  it  ob 
scured  the  name  of  Mr.  -Lee,  reduced  him  to  the  gregarious  equa 
lity  of  "  Glauciunqiie,  Medontaque^  Thersilocumque"  brought 
himself  into  immediate  contact  with  the  revolution  ;  a  position 


224 

which  by  the  help  of  his  authorship  of  the  declaration  would 
give  him  a  figure  in  history,  pre-eminent  above  all  his  associates. 

What  would  have  been  thought  of  the  father  of  history,  had  he 
recorded  the  determination  of  the  Athenians  at  the  approach  of 
Xerxes  to  desert  their  fortifications  and  man  their  ships,  without 
mentioning  the  name  of  the  individual  who  proposed  that  bold 
resolution?  What  should  we  now  say  o£an  author  who  should 
describe  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  without  mentioning  the  name 
of  Jackson  ?  He  would  be  despised  and  execrated,  although  his 
injustice  would  not  have  surpassed  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

If,  as  is  probable,  his  colleagues  united  in  confiding  to  Mr. 
Lee  the  conduct  of  this  great  measure,  it  is  proof  of  their  convic 
tion  that  from  his  political  courage,  his  zeal  and  eloquence,  he 
would  introduce  the  motion  with  becoming  spirit,  and  support  it 
with  adequate  ability.  His  speech  has  not  been  preserved,  but 
the  accounts  brought  down  by  tradition  represent  it  as  worthy  of 
the  subject,  and  equal  to  the  crisis.  Had  Mr.  Jefferson  been,  as 
he  was  not,  in  possession  of  such  oratorical  advantages  as  drew 
the  concurrence  of  his  colleagues  on  Mr.  Lee,  and  in  conse 
quence,  been  selected  as  the  mover  of  the  declaration  of  inde 
pendence,  it  is  impossible  from  the  nature  of  his  outstanding 
overtures  to  a  confidential  servant  of  the  British  crown,  to  con 
ceive,  that  he  could  have  introduced  and  supported  the  propo 
sition  with  that  confidence  and  animation  which  were  requisite  to 
propel  it  through  the  doubts  and  scruples  of  Congress.  On  the 
other  hand,  Mr.  Lee,  impeded  by  no  conflicting  engagements, 
with  his  understanding,  his  heart,  and  his  conscience,  all  en 
listed  in  favour  of  independence,  assumed  the  dangerous  respon 
sibility  of  proposing  and  urging  a  measure  which  even  now  per 
plexes  monarchs,  and  which — had  it  found  no  better  supporters 
either  in  battle  or  debate  than  the  man  who,  though  a  witness  to 
his  eloquence  and  patriotism,  endeavoured  to  erase  his  name  from 
the  annals  of  that  glorious  event — would  have  converted  the  ros 
trum  from  which  he  spoke  into  a  gibbet.  For  had  all  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress  been  as  inefficient  as  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  all  the 
governors  of  States  as  pusillanimous,  not  Washington  himself 
could  have  saved  the  country.  And  in  the  event  of  our  re-subju 
gation,  what  member  of  Congress  would  have  been  singled  out 
for  royal  vengeance  ?  That  one  certainly,  who  greatly  daring 
for  the  liberty  of  his  fellow-citizens,  had  exhorted  them  to  prefer 
the  trials  of  an  unequal  war  to  the  disgrace  of  servitude,  and  had 
urged  them,  in  order  to  be  free,  to  cast  off  their  allegiance  to  an 
oppressive  King. 

Besides,  against  this  sort  oi'di.stim-tion  Mi.  Jeflorson  was?  by  no 


225 

mfeans  unprovided.  He  could  have  pleaded  with  perfect  truth  that 
the  step  of  independence  having  been  resolved  on,  it  mattered 
little  by  whom  or  in  what  terms  the  declaration  was  written  ; 
that  in  writing  it  he  had  only  done  what,  had  he  declined  the 
task,  some  other  member  would  have  done  in  very  similar  lan 
guage  ;  that  although  he  was  under  instructions  from  the  As 
sembly  of  Virginia,  to  move  the  declaration  of  independence,  he 
had  neither  proposed  that  measure  himself,  nor  after  it  was  pro 
posed,  had  uttered  a  single  word  in  its  support.  That  so  far 
from  desiring  independence,  he  was  sincerely  anxious  for  a  re 
conciliation  between 'the  two  countries,  and  had  rather  be  in  li 
mited  dependence  on  Great  Britain  "  than  any  nation  upon 
earth,  or  than  on  no  nation."  That  Mr.  Randolph,  an  officer 
of  the  crown,  could  testify,  that  soon  after  he  (Mr.  Jefferson)  got 
a  seat  in  Congress,  he  had  of  his  own  accord  solicited  Mr.  Ran 
dolph's  intervention  with  the  British  government,  with  a  view  of 
bringing  the  revolted  colonies  again  under  his  Majesty's  lawful 
sway  ;  and  that  as  late  as  the  last  of  the  previous  November,  he 
had  renewed  the  same  overture,  repeated  the  same  counsels,  and 
avowed  the  same  predilections,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Randolph.  That 
it  could  not  be  imputed  to  him  as  a  fault,  that  the  advice  he  gave 
had  been  disregarded,  and  that  such  steps  as  were  necessary  to 
bring  about  a  renewal  of "  our  English  connexion,"  had  not 
been  taken  ;  and  that  if  independence  was  subsequently  de 
clared—upon  Mr.  Lee,  who,  while  he  (Mr.  Jefferson)  was  in 
daily  expectation  of  learning  from  Mr.  Randolph  the  result  of  his 
loyal  overture,  had  the  temerity  to  propose  it — and  not  on  him, 
should  the  consequences  of  that  rash  and  audacious  measure  be 
visited. 

There  would  have  been,  it  must  be  confessed,  greater  justice 
in  this  appeal  to  royal  mercy,  than  in  the  claim  he  sets  up  to 
credit  for  a  republican  ardor,  which  not  only  distanced  the  mea 
sured  pace  of  his  contemporaries,  but  outstripped  the  fervid  patriot 
ism  of  Richard  H.  Lee. 

As  this  anecdote  about  Mr.  Jay  and  the  button,  represents 
Mr.  Lee  as  little  better  than  a  poltroon,  it  affords  occasion  for  yet 
another  comparative  view  of  the  accused  and  the  accuser,  as 
they  appeared  in  those  times  which  are  truly  said  to  have  "  tried 
men's  souls." 

During  the  war  of  the  revolution,  and,  I  believe,  while  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  Governor  of  Virginia,  a  British  squadron  which 
had  been  scouring  the  waters  and  wasting  the  shores  of  the 
Chesapeake,  taking  advantage  of  a  favourable  breeze,  suddenly 
came  to,  off  the  coast  of  Virginia,  where  the  mnje?tic  cliff*  of 

20 


226 

Westmoreland  overlook  the  storrriy  and  sea-like  Potomac.  Mr. 
Lee  was  at  that  time  on  one  of  those  visits  to  his  family  with 
which,  from  the  permanent  sittings  of  Congress,  the  members 
were  of  necessity  occasionally  accommodated.  He  hastily  collected 
from  the  nearest  circle  of  his  neighbours  a  small  and  ill-armed 
band,  repaired  at  their  head  to  the  point  on  which  the  enemy 
had  commenced  a  descent,  and  without  jegard  to  his  inferiority 
of  means  and  numbers,  instantly  attacked  them.  He  drove  the 
party  on  shore  back  into  their  barges,  and  held  them  aloof,  until 
the  ships  were  brought  to  cover  the  landing  with  round  shot  and 
shells,  which  he  had  no  means  of  returning.  Then  as  he  was 
the  first  in  advance  so  he  was  the  last  to  retire,  as  men  who  were 
with  him  have  since  his  death  often  said.  Several  of  the  hostile 
party  were  killed  or  wounded,  among  them  an  officer  whom 
they  carried  off.  One  man  they  buried  on  the  shore.  In  a 
grove  of  aged  beech  trees,  not  far  from  Mr.  Lee's  residence,  rest 
the  remains  of  this  unknown  but  unforgotten  foe.  The  belated 
homeward-going  hunter,  as  he  drags  his  tired  steps  along  that 
proud  and  melancholy  coast,  hastens  to  pass  this  grave  without  a 
name.  His  comrade  is  awed  into  silence,  his  hounds  with  startled 
instinct  follow  close  at  his  heels,  he  hears  a  deeper  moan  in  the 
night  wind,  a  more  sullen  murmur  in  the  angry  wave,  and  over 
come  with  a  pleasing  terror  continues  his  quickened  pace,  until 
the  course  of  a  limpid  stream  is  crossed.  Then  he  talks  again 
with  his  companion  ;  tells  of  the  men  who  when  his  sire  was 
young,  were  the  pride  of  Westmoreland ;  of  Washington's  re 
nown  in  arms,  of  Lee's  fame  for  eloquence  ;  how  the  first  went 
abroad  to  distant  battles  and  high  commands ;  how  the  second 
returned  from  solemn  councils  to  his  poor  but  hospitable  hills, 
delighted  to  disperse  among  his  neighbours  the  fruits  of  wisdom 
and  benevolence. 

Such  was  the  conduct  of  Richard  Henry  Lee,  who  was  also 
"  unprepared  by  his  line  of  life  and  education  for  the  command  of 
armies."  And  such  were  the  impressions  left  by  his  virtues  on 
the  minds  of  those  who  best  understood  his  character,  in  the 
county*  where  he  lived  .and  died,  but  where,  alas,  not  one  of  his 
name  remains. 

*  Westmoreland,  situated  on  the  North  East  frontier  of  Virginia,  which, 
though  not  one  of  our  large  or  fertile  counties,  has  given  birth  to  a  number  of 
eminent  men.  Besides  Washington,  may  be  enumerated  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
and  his  three  brothers,  Thomas,  Francis,  and  Arthur,  the  late  judge  Wash 
ington,  and  the  late  President  Monroe.  Of  these  distinguished  citizens,  all, 
except  the  last,  are  defamed,  either  by  slander  or  detraction,  directly  or  indi 
rectly,  in  the  "  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson."  The  free  population  of  West  - 
moreland  has  never  exceeded  I  believe,  five  thousand. 


227 

The  same  tone  of  disparagement  prevails  in  a  letter  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  to  Mr.  Adams  on  the  22d  of  August,  1 813,  (Vol.  4.  p. 
206)  in  which  he  observes,  "  Marshall  in  his  first  volume  chapter 
3.  p.  180,  ascribes  the  petition  to  the  King  of  1774,  to  the  pen 
of  Richard  Henry  Lee.  I  think  myself  it  was  riot  written  by 
him,  as  well  from  what  I  recollect  to  have  heard,  as  from  the  in 
ternal  evidence  of  style.  His  was  loose,  vague,  frothy,  rhetorical. 
He  was  a  poorer  writer  than  his  brother  Arthur,  and  Arthur's 
standing  may  be  seen  in  his  Monitor's  letters,  to  insure  the  sale 
of  which  they  took  the  precaution  of  tacking  to  them  a  new 
edition  of  the  Farmer's  letters ;  like  Mezentius,  who  "  Mortua 
jungebat  copora  vivis" 

In  the  first  place,  Marshall  in  his  fourth  volume  p.  627,  had 
corrected  this  error  of  his  first,  and  in  doing  so,  he  observes  that 
Mr.  Lee's  draught  "  was  disapproved  because  it  did  not  manifest 
sufficiently  that  spirit  of  conciliation  which  then  animated  Con 
gress."  An  ostracism,  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  has  been  no 
ticed,  endeavoured  to  appropriate  the  credit  to  a  rejected  draught 
of  his  own. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  somewhat  strange  considering  the 
"  vague  "  and  "  frothy  "  diction  of  Mr.  Lee,  and  Mr.  Jefferson's 
chaste  horror  of  his  rhetorical  looseness,  that  it  should  have  been 
for  a  long  time  supposed  by  a  large  and  intelligent  class  of  the 
community,  that  Mr.  Lee  was  the  real  author  of  the  declaration 
of  independence,  and  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  only  reported  it. 
This  impression  could  hardly  have  existed,  if  the  public  had  en 
tertained  the  same  opinion  respecting  Mr.  Lee's  style  which  Mr. 
Jefferson  here  expresses  ;  for  although  the  declaration  of  indepen 
dence,  in  its  published  form,  is  faulty  in  point  of  style,  it  is  neither 
"frothy"  nor  "rhetorical."  Specimens  of  Mr.  Lee's  style  are  be 
fore  the  world  in  the  interesting  compilation  of  his  letters  lately 
published  by  his  grandson.  These  I  have  read,  though  not  with 
particular  reference  to  their  diction ;  and  they  appeared  to  be  writ 
ten  in  a  plain  unpretending  style,  by  a  man,  who  well  read  in 
Classical  and  English  lore,  was  more  intent  on  his  thoughts  than 
his  language,  and  to  have  that  ease  and  directness  of  expression 
which  is  the  reverse  of  vagueness  and  froth. 

In  regard  to  the  style  of  his  brother  Arthur,  which  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  describes  as  so  exceedingly  indifferent,  it  is  a  little  remarkable 
that  I  came  across  a  manuscript  of  Arthur  Lee's,  some  few  years 
ago,  so  much  like  the  declaration  of  independence,  both  in  sub 
stance  and  language,  that  I  took  occasion  to  mention  it  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  at  the  same  time  to  inquire,  seeing  that 
Arthur  Lee's  paper  was  of  prior  date,  whether  he,  Mr.  Jefferson, 


228 

had  not  read  it,  before  be  prepared  tbat  celebrated  document, 
His  reply,  as  well  as  I  recollect,  was  that  he  had  never  seen  the 
paper  of  Arthur  Lee,  but  that  does  not  disprove  the  closeness  ol 
the  resemblance.  The  "  Monitor's  letters  "  I  never  saw.  It  is 
probable  they  were  dedicated  to  the  discussion  of  some  patriotic 
topic  of  strong  but  temporary  interest,  and  that  those  who  thought 
with  Mr.  Lee  in  relation  to  it,  considered  them  worthy  of  being 
appended  to  the  "'Farmer's  letters" — as  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  in 
respect  to  a  speech  of  Mr.  Gallatin  says,  (Vol.  3.  p.  324)  "  it  is 
worthy  of  being  printed  at  the  end  of  the  (  Federalist.'"  Had 
this  suggestion  of  his  been  adopted  and  his  malice  thereupon  imi 
tated,  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  sneerer  at  Mr.  Gallatin's  style,  would  not 
have  been  so  awkward  as  to  give  the  life  of  the  literary  com 
pound  to  Mr.  Gallatin,  and  its  mortal  dulness  to  the  Federalist, 
a  blunder  which  by  his  trite  quotation  Mr.  Jefferson  commits. 

From  what  has  been  already  observed  it  is  not  easy  to  suppose 
that  in  regard  to  style,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  qualified  to  be  a  critic 
or  a  preceptor.  His  own  is  to  be  admired  neither  for  purity  nor 
strength,  refinement  nor  felicity.  Its  texture  is  the  same  for 
letters  and  dissertations,  for  familiar  and  diplomatic  correspon 
dence  ;  and  it  is  as  mechanical  and  monotonous  as  the  music  of 
a  hand  organ.  There  is  not  the  slightest  variety  in  his  diction, 
neither  the  elegant  choice  of  art,  nor  the  easy  carelessness  of 
nature.  If  it  ever  glows  with  animation  from  the  heart,  the 
animation  springs  from  the  two  most  odious  feelings,  vanity  and 
malice.  In  the  four  volumes  of  his  writings  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  sentence  beautifully  simple,  tersely  energetic,  richly  meta 
phorical,  powerfully  expanded,  or  nobly  elevated.  A  diplomatic 
manner  and  a  French  lourmire,  which  completely  blight  the 
spirit  of  the  English  idiom,  are  the  peculiar  properties  of  his  style. 
And  these,  together  with  its  mechanical  and  uniform  structure, 
account  for  the  fact,  that  while  small  parcels  of  it  came  to  be 
much  admired  by  the  public,  the  wholesale  quantity  now  exposed, 
proves  distressing  to  the  least  fastidious  reader. 

Mr.  Lee,  who  is  confessed  to  have  been  a  more  eloquent  man 
than  Mr.  Jefferson,  was  also  a  better  scholar  ;  and  it  is  more  than 
probable  would  have  appeared  as  a  professed  writer,  as  he  did  in 
the  character  of  patriot  and  statesman,  though  vastly  his  inferior 
in  pretension,  greatly  his  superior  in  merit. 


LETTER  XVIII. 

JOHN     MARSHALL. 

EXCEPT  Alexander  Hamilton,  no  man  living  or  dead,  was 
ever  visited  by  more  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  abuse,  than  the  present 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  no  man  was  ever  more 
honoured  by  it.  For  it  not  only  served  to  signalize  his  fellowship 
with  those  great  and  magnanimous  men,  whose  actions  have  just 
been  vindicated,  but  it  furnished  opportunity  for  the  most  perfect 
triumph  that  ever  was  achieved  by  the  unexerted  strength  of  me 
rit,  over  the  unassuaged  rancour  of  injustice. 

As  statesman,  diplomatist,  author,  or  Judge,  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  he  was  the  constant  theme  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  obloquy,  in  all  the  forms  in  which  it  could  be  distributed  ; 
oral  or  written,  official  or  private.  And  although  he  made  no  re 
sistance  to  these  injuries,  attempted  no  retaliation,  manifested  no 
resentment ;  was  lauded  by  no  dependants,  and  supported  by  no 
dominant  party  ;  stood  lofty  and  alone,  the  last  official  survivor  of 
his  class  :  while  his  enemy  had  mobs,  and  demagogues,  and  le 
gislatures,  to  reverberate  his  hints  and  enforce  his  denunciations  ; 
yet  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  death,  there  was  scarcely  a  man 
even  of  his  own  party,  who  believed  a  single  word  he  had  ever 
uttered  to  the  prejudice  of  John  Marshall.  A  shade  of  doubt  was 
perhaps  kept  up  by  a  threat  which  his  friends  gave  out  mysteri 
ously,  purporting  that  he  was  to  leave  a  posthumous  refutation  of 
the  5th  volume  of  the  life  of  Washington,  and  an  overthrow  of 
its  author's  political  and  literary  character.  But  no  sooner  ap 
peared  the  Jeffersoniana,  which  are  solemnly  recommended  to 
the  world  as  "  testimony"  against  Marshall's  work,  than  the  threat 
became  harmless  and^contemptible.  For  it  is  incontestably  true, 
that  a  mass  of  more  inert  folly  and  innoxious  though  putrescent 
slander,  is  not  to  be  found  any  where  in  print,  than  is  formed  by 
these  pretended  historical  materials. 

They  consist  for  the  most  part  of  such  speeches  as  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  chose  to  put  into  his  own  mouth,  or  into  the  mouths  of  men 
he  either  dreaded  or  hated — and  resemble  very  much  in  their  fa 
brication,  the  dialogue  appended  by  Basil  Hall  to  his  travels  in  the 
United  States,  in  which  he  appropriates  all  the  smart  observations 
to  himself,  and  the  silly  ones  to  his  republican  interlocutor. 

In  the  mode  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson's  Anas  have  made  their 
appearance,  there  is  one  circumstance  likely  to  afford  merriment 
at  least.  It  is  that  on  various  occasions  when  allusion  to  Marshall 


230 

is  made,  a  hiatus  is  left  in  the  text  in  order  either  to  grant  him 
the  favour  of  a  post  mortem  dissection,  or  else,  as  in  the  case  of 
Gen.  Lee,  in  the  hope  that  a  dead  subject  may  prove  more  tracta 
ble  to  a  bungling  operator.  Whatever  be  the  motive,  this  sword 
of  wood  is  still  suspended  over  Marshall's  reputation,  which,  it 
seems,  while  his  life  is  spared,  is  not  to  bg  completely  destroyed. 

And  here  it  is  proper  to  remark,  that  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  preserved  his  Anas  for  the  express  purpose  of  impugning  the 
fairness  of  Marshall's  historical  narrative  with  respect  to  him  and 
his  party,  it  may  be  accounted  unjust  and  illogical  in  controvert 
ing  Mr.  Jefferson's  statements  to  rely  on  Marshall's  disputed  au 
thority.  I  was  sensible  of  this  apparent  incompetency  as  it  re 
garded  the  Life  of  Washington,  but  upon  perusing  the  "  Writ 
ings"  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  was  at  once  convinced  that  it  was  only 
apparent ;  and  that  if  a  work  so  authentic,  clear,  and  impartial 
as  Marshall's  could  receive  corroboration  from  any  source,  it 
could  only  be  from  so  ostentatious,  angry,  and  impotent  an  at 
tack,  as  this  posthumous  one  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

Specimens  of  the  Anas  have  already  been  submitted  to  your 
notice,  some  from  among  those  that  profess  to  relate  occurrences 
which  Mr.  Jefferson  witnessed,  and  remarks  that  he  made  or 
heard,  and  some  from  those  which  profess  to  retail  the  reports  of 
others.  Of  the  former  class  was  the  Julius  Caesar  anecdote  of 
Hamilton,  while  to  the  latter  chiefly  belongs  the  following  one,  it 
being  a  fair  sample  of  the  positive  tone  in  which  they  are  deliver 
ed,  and  of  the  quantity  of  truth  they  contain.  (Vol.  4.  p.  515) 
"  February  12th,  1801,  Edward  Livingston  tells  me  that  Bay 
ard  applied  to-day  or  last  night  to  Gen.  Samuel  Smith,  and  re 
presented  to  him  the  expediency  of  coming  over  to  the  States 
who  vote  for  Burr ;  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  way  of  appoint 
ment  which  he  might  not  command,  and  particularly  mentioned 
the  secretaryship  of  the  navy.  Smith  asked  him  if  he  was  au 
thorized  to  make  the  offer.  He  said  he  was  authorized.  Smith 
told  this  to  Livingston,  and  to  Wilson  C.  Nicholas,  who  confirms 
it  to  me.  Bayard  likewise  tempted  Livingston,  not  by  offering 
him  a  particular  office,  but  by  representing  to  him,  his,  Living 
ston's  intimacy  and  connexion  with  Burr,  that  from  him  he  had 
every  thing  to  expect  if  he  came  over  to  him."  At  page  521, 
this  statement  is  referred  to  by  way  of  adding  to  its  authenticity, 
as  support  to  another.  However,  soon  after  the  Jefferson  "  Writ 
ings"  were  published,  and  about  fourteen  years  after  Bayard's 
death,  Mr.  Clayton,  Senator  from  Delaware,  jealous  of  the  honour 


231 

of  his  State,  and  justly  confident  in  that  of  his  great  predecessor* 
called  on  Mr.  Livingston  and  Gen.  Smith,  Senators,  the  one 
from  Maryland,  the  other  from  Louisiana,  in  a  full  sitting  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  to  declare  whether  this  statement  of 
Mr.  Jefferson  in  regard  to  Mr.  Bayard,  was  true  or  false.  These 
gentlemen  thus  openly  interrogated,  though  both  were  partizans 
of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  had  voted  for  him  in  preference  to  Burr,  felt 
themselves  compelled  to  confess  that  they  were  unable  to  confirm 
the  statement  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  they  had  not  the  least  know 
ledge  of  the  circumstances  it  mentioned,  either  in  regard  to  Mr. 
Bayard  or  to  themselves. 

To  give  a  brief  and  subdued  account  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  imputa 
tions  against  Marshall,  it  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  he  repeats  the 
following  allegations,  viz  :  that  as  a  statesman,  Marshall  is  a  mo 
narchist  ;  as  a  diplomatist,  a  mountebank  and  impostor ;  as  an 
author,  false  and  libellous  ;  and  as  a  Judge,  partial  and  corrupt. 
This  last  tendency  of  his  vilification  was  so  strong,  that  in  his  an 
nual  message  to  Congress  of  December,  1807,  he  recommended 
indirectly  the  impeachment  of  the  Chief  Justice. 

As  to  the  political  creed  of  Marshall,  it  is  known  to  have  coincided 
with  that  of  Washington  and  of  the  patriotic  statesmen  who  sup 
ported  his  administration.  His  reputation  for  historical  truth  and 
candour,  has  received,  as  was  observed,  all  the  honour  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  invective,  and  may  now  be  considered  more  solid  than  brass 
or  marble.  It  is  as  if  a  treatise  by  Hannibal  were  found  confirming 
by  ineffectual  denials  or  falsified  contradictions  every  statement  in 
Livy  respecting  the  characters  of  Fabius,  Marcellus,  Claudius, 
and  Scipio,  and  the  events  of  the  second  Punic  war. 

His  character  as  a  minister  of  justice,  it  would  not  become  so 
humble  a  pen  as  mine  to  vindicate,  or  even  to  commend.  The 
indefinite  embargo  Congress,  although  unkennelled,  and  halloo 
ed,  did  not  dare  to  approach  its  tranquil  majesty.  The  leaders 
growled  hatefully  around,  the  babblers  yelped  at  a  distance  ;  but 
the  '  hunter  of  men'  had  to  retire  successless  and  chagrined. 

As  a  diplomatist,  Marshall  had  but  a  short  career,  and  was 
employed  only  upon  a  special  mission.  The  nature  of  this  has 
been  so  little  inquired  into,  that  of  the  thousands  who  at  first  be 
lieved,  and  finally  discredited,  the  imputations  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
not  ten  individuals  understood  the  occasion  of  them,  deriving 
their  first  impressions  from  political  infatuation  with  regard  to 
Mr.  Jefferson,  and  owing  their  relief  from  them  to  the  irresistible 
but  silent  force  of  Marshall's  integrity. 

*  Mr.  Bayard  was  a  citizen  of  Delaware,  and  for  a  long  time -a  Senator  from 

that  Stato. 


232 

You  will  recollect  that  the  lever  with  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
overturned  the  federal  party,  was  the  charge  that  they  were  ma- 
nceuvering  to  introduce  a  monarchy,  modelled  on  the  forms  of  the 
British  government,  and  in  close  alliance  with,  if  not  in  actual  re- 
subjugation  to,  it.  A  direct  consequence,  in  his  tactics,  was,  the 
allegation  that  their  policy  was  always  favourable,  and  sometimes 
subservient,  to  Great  Britain.  This  imputation  was  of  course  at 
tached  to  every  measure  which  was  intended  to  resist  the  belliger 
ent  injustice,  or  arrogant  amity  of  France.  And  in  order  to  en 
joy  its  full  effect,  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  has  been  already  mentioned, 
withdrew  from  the  cabinet  in  1793,  fearing  that  the  necessities  of 
his  office  wrould  expose  him  to  the  slanders  he  was  instigating 
against  his  colleagues  and  his  chief. 

These  professions  and  views,  it  will  be  readily  perceived,  caused 
the  political  ascendancy  at  which  he  was  aiming,  to  depend  on 
his  success  in  making  his  fellow-citizens  believe,  that  all  our  po 
licy  with  regard  to  France  was  wrong  ;  and  e  converse,  that  her 
conduct  towards  us,  if  not  right,  was  at  least  excusable.  So  that 
having  incessantly  denied  or  extenuated  her  outrages  at  the  risk 
of  his  political  prospects,  it  came  to  pass  that  in  the  course  of  their 
progressive  enormity,  he  was  compelled,  either  to  retract  a  whole 
chain  of  false  assertions,  or  to  follow  them  up  by  still  more  daring 
fabrications.  The  stricture  o(  this  alternative  upon  his  ambition 
became  almost  spasmodic,  when  the  delirious  atrocities  of  the 
French  directory,  seemed  to  increase  in  a  higher  ratio  than  even 
his  capacity  for  misrepresentation  could  keep  pace  with,  and 
threatened  to  render  war  between  France  and  the  United  States 
inevitable,  by  making  the  apologists  of  France  open  friends  of  our 
public  enemy.  For  had  this  event  happened,  it  could  not  have 
failed  to  pull  down  the  ladder  of  fabrications  on  which  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  had  almost  reached  the  pinnacle  of  power. 

In  a  case  like  this,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  a  man  to  hesitate.— 
He  commenced,  accordingly,  a  new  series  of  inventions  and  mis 
representations  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  French  and  Ame 
rican  governments,  and  in  reference  to  the  ministers  employed 
by  the  latter.  From  among  these  Marshall  was  singled  out  as 
the  object  of  peculiar  slander,  which  never  relenting  in  violence, 
was  terminated  only  by  its  author's  death. 

The  manner  in  which  Marshall  and  his  colleagues,  Gen.  Pink- 
ney  and  Mr.  Gerry,  were  received,  or  rather  insulted  by  the 
French  government,  is  described  by  Marshall  in  his  Life  of 
Washington.*  It  was  represented  in  very  similar  terms  in  the 

R •»  .-  *  V.  5.  pp.  741,  42,  43,  14. 


233 

despatches  of  the  mission  to  their  government,  and  by  exciting 
general  indignation  among  the  people,  who  cried  out,  "  millions 
for  defence,  not  a  cent'for  tribute,"  shook  the  whole  frame  work 
of  popularity  which  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  the  leader  of  the  French 
party  in  the  United  States  had  acquired. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  undertaking  to  explain  the  state 
of  our  differences  with  France,  at  that  time ;  to  trace  them  to 
their  origin^  or Jo_follow  them  out  to  their  close.  The  undertak 
ing  may  perhaps  be  forced  upon  me  hereafter.  If  it  should,  I 
shall  be  able  not  only  to  assign  a  proper  degree  of  praise  to  the 
conduct  of  Marshall,  but  to  show  that  as  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  pur 
suit  of  power,  had  endeavoured  to  disorganize  the  country  at 
home,  so  he  strove,  for  the  sairm  object,  to  humiliate  it  abroad ; 
and  that  since  the  United  States  became  an  independent  nation, 
its  rights  and  honour  have  never  been  so  shamefully  abandoned 
by  any  citizen,  as  they  were  on  occasion  of  the  outrages  of  France, 
by  the  very  man  who  slandered  Gen.  Lee,  and  calumniated  Chief 
Justice  Marshall ;  accused  Hamilton  of  treasonable  designs,  and 
reproached  Washington  with  having  "  truckled  servilely  to  Eng 
land." 

For  the  present,  after  referring  the  admirers  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
patriotism,  to  his  letter  of  diplomatic  counsel  to  Mr.  Gerry,  placed 
at  the  foot  of  the  page,*  it  will  be  sufficient  to  remind  you,  that 

Philadelphia,  June  21,  1797. 

*  MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — It  was  with  infinite  joy  to  me,'that  you  were  yester 
day  announced  to  the  Senate,  as  Envoy  Extraordinary,  jointly  with  General 
Pinckney  and  Mr.  Marshall,  to  the  French  republic.  It  gave  me  certain  assu 
rances  that  there  would  be  a  preponderance  in  the  mission,  sincerely  disposed 
to  be  at  peace  with  the  French  government  and  nation.  Peace  is  undoubt 
edly  at  present  the  first  object  of  our  nation.  Interest  and  honour  are  also 
national  considerations.  But  interest,  duly  weighed,  is  in  favor  of  peace 
even  at  the  expense  of  spoliations  past  and  future  ;  and  honor  cannot  now  be 
an  object.  The  insults  and  injuries  committed  on  us  by  both  the  belligerent 
parties,  from  the  beginning  of  1793  to  this  day,  and  still  continuing,  cannot 
now  be  wiped  off  by  engaging  in  war  with  one  of  them.  As  there  is  great 
reason  to  expect  this  is  the  last  campaign  m  Europe,  it  would  certainly  be 
better  for  us  to  rub  through  this  year,  as  we  have  done  through  the  four  pre 
ceding  ones,  and  hope  that,  on  the  restoration  of  peace,  we  may  be  able  to 
establish  some  plan  for  our  foreign  connexions  more  likely  to  secure  our 
peace,  interest,  and  honour,  in  future.  Our  countrymen  have  divided  them 
selves  by  such  strong  affections,  to  the  French  and  iho  English,  that  nothing 
will  secure  us  internally  but  a  divorce  from  both  nations  ;  and  this  must  be 
the  object  of  every  real  American,  and  its  attainment  is  practicable  without 
much  self-denial.  But,  for  this,  peace  is  necessary.  Be  assured  of  this,  my 
dear  Sir,  that  if  we  engage  in  a  war  during  our  present  passions,  and  our  pre 
sent  weakness  in  some  quarters,  our  Union  runs  the  greatest  risk  of  not 
coming  out  of  that  war  in  the  shape  in  which  it  enters  it.  My  reliance  for 
our  preservation  is  in  your  acceptance  of  this  mission.  I  know  the  tender 
circumstances  which  will  oppoae  themselves  to  it.  But  its  duration  will  be 

30 


234 

Marshall  in  his  historical  account  of  this  mission,  observes  that 
both  the  French  Minister  of  foreign  affairs,  Talleyrand,  and  cer 
tain  unofficial,  though  real  agents  of  the  French  Government, 
demanded  as  a  preliminary  to  negociation,  the  advance  of  a  large 
sum  of  money  by  the  United  States  to  France,  and  that  in  the 
despatches  of  himself  and  his  colleagues  to  their  own  government, 
it  was  stated  that  the  written  communications  of  these  unofficial 
agents  requiring  this  advance  of  money,  or  in  lieu  of  it  a  douceur 
of  fifty  thousand  pounds  to  Talleyrand,  were  signed  with  the  let 
ters  .X.  Y^Z- 

These  despatches  Mr.  Jefferson  insists  were  written  by  Marshall 
for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  to 
the  disposition  and  conduct  of  the  French  Government,  and  he 
describes  them  and  their  author  in  language  of  which  the  follow 
ing  quotations  afford  fair  specimens.  In  a  letter  of  the  llth  of 
October,  1798,  to  Stephens  T.  Mason,  a  Senator  from  Virginia, 
(Vol.  3.  p.  402.)  he  calls  the  indignation  produced  by  these  de 
mands  of  Talleyrand  "  the  X.  Y.  Z.  fever."  In  one  to  John  Tay 
lor,  of  the  26th  of  November,  (p.  403)  "  the  X.  Y.  Z.  delusion." 
To  Mr.  Gerry,  (p.  410)  he  says,  the  January  following  "  when 
most  critically  for  the  government  the  despatches  of  the  22d  of 
October,  prepared  by  your  colleague  Marshall,  with  a  view  to 
their  being  made  public,  dropped  into  their  laps."  To  Edmund 
Pendleton,  a  few  days  after,  he  writes  on  the  same  subject,  and 
observes,  (p.  414)  "  You  know  the  wicked  use  that  has  been 

short,  and  its  reward  long.  You  have  it  in  your  power,  by  accepting  and  de 
termining  the  character  of  the  mission,  to  secure  the  present  peace  and  eter 
nal  union  of  your  country.  If  you  decline,  on  motives  of  private  pain,  a  sub 
stitute  may  be  named  who  has  enlisted  his  passions  in  the  present  contest,  and 
by  the  preponderance  of  his  vote  in  the  mission  may  entail  on  us  calamities, 
your  share  in  which,  and  your  feelings,  will  outweigh  whatever  pain  a  tem 
porary  absence  from  your  family  could  give  you.  The  sacrifice  will  be  short, 
the  remorse  would  be  never-ending.  Let  me  then,  my  dear  Sir,  conjure  your 
acceptance,  and  that  you  will,  by  this  act,  seal  the  mission  with  the  confidence 
of  all  parties.  Your  nomination  has  given  a  spring  to  hope,  which  was  dead 
before. 

I  leave  this  place  in  three  days,  and  therefore,  shall  not  here  have  the  plea 
sure  of  learning  your  determination.  But  it  will  reach  me  in  my  retirement, 
and  enrich  the  tranquillity  of  that  scene.  It  will  add  to  the  proofs  which  have 
convinced  me  that  the  man  who  loves  his  country  on  its  own  account,  and  not 
merely  for  its  trappings  of  interest  or  power,  can  never  be  divorced  from  it, 
can  never  refuse  to  come  forward  when  he  finds  that  she  is  engaged  in  dan 
gers  which  he  has  the  means  of  warding  off.  Make  then  an  effort,  my  friend, 
to  renounce  your  domestic  comforts  for  a  few  months,  and  reflect  that  to  be  a 
good  husband  and  good  father  at  this  moment,  you  must  be  also  a  good  citi 
zen.  With  sincere  wishes  for  your  acceptance  and  success,  I  am,  with  unal 
terable  esteem,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

TH:  JBFFERSON. 


235 

made  of  the  French  nogociation  ;  and  particularly,  the  X.  Y.  Z. 
dish  cooked  up  by  (a  set  of  asterisks  put  for  Marshall)  where  the 
swindlers  are  made  to  appear  as  the  French  government."  To 
Kosciusko  (then  in  Paris)  he  writes  on  the  21st  of  the  same 
month,  (p.  422)  "  The  wonderful  irritation  produced  in  the 
minds  of  our  citizens  by  the  X.  Y.  Z.  story,  has  in  a  great  mea 
sure  subsided."  To  Gideon  Granger,  afterwards  his  Postmaster 

1800,  (p.  438)     "In  this  state" 


(Virginia)  "  a  few  persons  were  deluded  by  the  X.  Y.  Z. 
duperies."  To  Dr.  Rush,  September  23d,  (p.  441)  "Trie  delu 
sion  into  which  the  X.  Y.  Z.  plot  showed  it  was  possible  to  push 
the  people."  After  repeating  on  various  occasions  these  or  similar 
sneers  and  calumnies,  we  find  him  solemnly  bequeathing  them  for 
historical  truths  to  posterity  in  the  introduction  to  his  Anas,  (Vol. 
4.  p.  452.)  Speaking  of  the  federalists  he  there  says,  "  The 
horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  then  reigning  aided  them 
mainly,  and  using  that  as  a  raw  head  and  bloody  bones,  they 
were  enabled  by  their  stratagems  of  X.  Y.  Z.  in  which  Marshall" 
(here  asterisks  again  are  used)  "  was  a  leading  mountebank,  &c." 

Here  we  have  the  statements  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  and  of 
General  Pinckney  on  one  side,  in  respect  to  transactions  in  which 
they  were  personally  engaged,  and  on  the  other  the  contradiction 
of  Mr.  Jefierson,  who  was  three  thousand  miles  from  the  scene  of 
these  transactions.  Putting  aside  the  motives  by  which  these 
parties  were  influenced,  and  their  comparative  qualifications,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  if  an  impartial  inquirer  could  hesitate  be 
tween  them,  his  belief  would  be  determined  to  that  statement, 
whichever  it  might  be,  which  the  testimony  of  a  third  party,  com 
petent  and  disinterested,  should  be  found  to  confirm.  Now  it 
turns  out  that  the  testimony  of  a  third  party,  competent  and  dis 
interested,  confirms  the  statement  of  Marshall  and  Pinckney  in 
every  particular.  Of  consequence  it  is  impossible  for  any  honest 
man  to  believe  the  statement  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon,  who,  before  his  expedition  to  Egypt, 
was  intimate  with  the  councils  of  the  Directory,  and  after  his  re 
turn  overthrew  that  profligate  oligarchy,  and  assumed  the  govern 
ment  of  France,  in  his  dictations  at  St.  Helena,  describes  minutely 
the  differences  between  the  United  States  and  France. 

After  observing  that  the  measures  taken  by  the  Directory 
against  the  United  States  were  equivalent  to  actual  war,  and 
mentioning  the  appointment  of  Messrs.  Marshall,  Pinckney,  and 
Gerry,  as  plenipotentiaries,  to  treat  for  the  re-establishment  of  a 
good  understanding,  he  says  :  — 


236 

"  In  consequence  of  the  events  of  the  revolution  the  federal 
party  in  the  United  States  had  obtained  an  ascendancy,  but  the 
democratic  party  was  notwithstanding  more  numerous.  The 
Directory  thought  to  give  greater  force  to  the  latter,  by  refusing  to 
receive  the  two  "American  plenipotentiaries  who  belonged  to  the 
federal  party,  and  by  consenting  to  receive  the  third  who  was  of 
the  opposite  party.  The  Directory  declared,  moreover,  that  they 
could  not  enter  into  any  negociation  whatever,  until  America 
should  have  made  reparatiojLJbr  the  grievances  of  which  the 
French  n3j3uklki_luitl  cause  to  complain.  The  18th  of  January, 
1798,  they  proposed  a  law  to  the  two  councils  enacting  that  the 
neutral  character  of  vessels  should  not  be  determined  by  their 
flag,  but  by  the  nature  of  their  cargoes,  and  that  all  vessels,  laden 
in  whole  or  hi  part  with  English  merchandize,  should  be  subject 
to  confiscation." — "  The  result  of  this  law  was  disastrous  for  the 
Americans  ;  French  privateers  made  a  number  of  prizes,  and  by 
the  terms  of  the  law  they  were  all  good.  For  it  was  sufficient 
for  an  American  vessel  to  have  only  a  few  tons  of  English  mer 
chandize  on  board,  to  subject  the  entire  cargo  to  confiscation.  At 
the  same  time,  as  if  there  had  not  been  already  sufficient  cause 
of  resentment  and  alienation  between  the  two  countries,  the  Di 
rectory  demanded  of  the  American  Envoys  a  loan  of  forty-eight 
millions  of  francs,  grounding  the  demand  on  the  loan  which  the 
United  States  had  formerly  contracted  with  France,  lor  the  pur 
pose  of  enabling  them  to  succeed  in  escaping  from  the  yoke  of 
England.  Certain  intriguing  agents,  with  which  sort  of  instru 
ments  the  office  of  foreign  relations  was  at  that  period  abundantly 
supplied,  insinuated  that  the  demand  of  a  loan  would  be  desisted 
from,  upon  the  advance  of  twelve  hundred  thousand  francs,  to  be 

divided  between  the  Director  B*****  (Barras)  and  the  Minister 
T*********  (Talleyrand.)* 

Marshall's  historical  account,  and  the  official  statements  made 
by  himself  and  Pinckney  are  here  confirmed  in  every  particular  ; 
the  non-reception  of  the  two  federal  envoys,  the  demand  of  a  loan 
of  one  million  sterling,  of  a  douceur  of  £50,OUU  sterling,  by  the 
agents  of  Talleyrand,  for  his  and  Barras's  benefit — are  all  distinct 
ly  confirmed  by  a  man,  who  besides  being  fully  acquainted  with 
the  subject,  was  no  party  to  the  difference  between  the  French 
and  American  governments,  or  to  the  contention  between  the 
federal  and  democratic  parties,  and  who  probably  never  saw,  as 
he  certainly  does  not  refer  to  them,  either  Marshall's  historical,  or 
diplomatic,  account  of  these  proceedings. 

*  Memoires  de  Napoleon,  Tome  II.  pp.  107,  8,  9,  10. 


v  237 

In  addition  it  may  be  observed  this  statement  of  Marshall 
respecting  the  infamous  demand  of  Talleyrand,  though  thus  con 
firmed  by  the  dictations  at  St.  Helena,  has  never  been  denied  by 
any  person  of  consideration  in  the  world  excepting  Mr.  Jefferson. 

Here  I  shall  conclude — leaving  the  reputation  of  Marshall  pro 
tected,  not  by  the  buckler  of  Napoleon's  testimony,  but  by  the  pano 
ply  of  his  own  virtues.  The  man  who  assailed  him  with  unre 
lenting  ahusiv  J^rileiLand  liaied  his  great  and  gifted  associates — 
patriots  who  were  stamped  by  their  Creator  with  marks  of  merit 
and  renown.  Of  that  man,  who  endeavoured  to  destroy  the  tem 
ple  of  American  glory,  and  to  build  of  its  rubbish,  a  shrine  for  the 
worship  of  his  own  image,  it  may  be  saia  with  perfect  truth,  that 
to  those  by  whom  he  was  the  most  honoured,  he  was  the  least 
known. 


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